Iraqi custody death inquiry hailed

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Four-and-a-half years after Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel receptionist, died while detained by soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Queen's Lancashire Regiment, Defence Secretary Des Browne said holding an inquiry was "the right thing to do".

The head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said the inquiry - to be headed by a senior judge - needed to establish whether his death was the result of the "misguided" actions of a few individuals or a wider "systemic" failure.

However ministers indicated they would resist demands by lawyers for the family that it should also look at other cases involving alleged mistreatment by British soldiers.

"If we draw (the terms of reference) too widely, then we don't give sufficient weight to the incident itself," Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth told reporters.

"We want the inquiry to focus upon the causes and the reasons for the death of Mr Baha Mousa."

Solicitor Phil Shiner, representing Mr Mousa's family and other Iraqis who were mistreated, said they wanted to see a single inquiry into the UK's detention policy in Iraq.

"It will not be sufficient if the inquiry has a narrow remit and does not look at all the cases and issues," he said.

"The public, as well as Parliament, must be given the opportunity of fully understanding what went wrong in our detention policy in Iraq and what are the lessons to be learned for the future."

In particular, he said the inquiry should be able to investigate an incident at the Abu Naji facility in May 2004 in which 20 Iraqis were allegedly executed and nine survivors tortured. Gen Dannatt insisted the Army had nothing to hide and would co-operate fully with the inquiry.