Iraqi captive died with 93 injuries, QC says

LONDON - Captive Iraqis were beaten with iron bars, kicked, starved, and forced to drink their own urine during abuse which led to the death of a prisoner, the first court martial of British troops accused of war crimes was told yesterday.

The dead man, 26-year-old Baha Musa, had 93 injuries to his body. Two other Iraqis were severely wounded by "systematic mistreatment".

Among the seven soldiers in the dock is the most senior officer to face charges over the Iraq war, Colonel Jorge Mendonca, 42, who is accused of negligence in his duties in failing to halt the ill-treatment by his men.

At the start of yesterday's proceedings, one of the defendants, Corporal Donald Payne, 35, pleaded guilty to inhumanely treating civilians in Basra four months after the official end of the war.

The Military Court Centre at Bulford Camp on Salisbury Plain, heard that the beating of the prisoners took place "for no apparent reason, sometimes, it seems, for the entertainment of others".

Prosecutor Julian Bevan, QC, said the case against the seven defendants centred on the alleged ill-treatment of Iraqi civilians held for about 36 hours at a temporary detention facility in Basra on September 14 and 15, 2003.

He said the abuse began after a battalion of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment raided hotels in Basra after being told they were being used by insurgents.

Most of the Iraqis allegedly mistreated were arrested at the Haitham Hotel, where the soldiers found an arms cache.

The Iraqis were moved to a detention facility where, said Bevan, they were repeatedly kicked and punched while handcuffed and hooded with sacks.

The hoods were kept on even when the temperature rose to 60C.

"One civilian, Baha Musa, died as a result, in part, from the multiple injuries he had received - there being 93 injuries on his body, including fractured ribs and a broken nose," Bevan told the seven-man judging panel.

- INDEPENDENT