Ruling gives victim's father hope

A panel of Law Lords ruled by a majority of four to one that the Human Rights Act does apply to the case of hotel receptionist Baha Mousa who died while in the custody of British forces.

Colonel Daoud Mousa, father of 26-year-old Baha, can now take the case back to the High Court to determine whether there should be an independent inquiry into the treatment of his son. In a phone call from Basra, he said he was "very pleased" by the judgment.

"It means that I have not lost hope of getting justice for my son. I hope that as a result of this judgment the truth will come out and that no other family should have to experience what me and my grandchildren have gone through."

Mr Mousa was found to have 93 separate injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose. In the same ruling, the Law Lords threw out appeals involving five other Iraqis allegedly shot by British patrols, ruling that human rights laws did not apply to their deaths because they were not in custody at the time.

They were: Hazim Jum'aa Gatteh Al-Skeini, 23, shot dead in the street; Muhammad Abdul Ridha Salim, a teacher, 45, shot and fatally wounded at his brother-in-law's house; Hannan Mahaibas Sadde Shmailawi, 33, shot and fatally wounded during an exchange involving a British military patrol; Waleed Sayay Muzban, 43, shot and fatally injured by a military patrol while he was driving a minibus; and Raid Hadi Sabir Al Musawi, a police commissioner, 29, shot and fatally wounded in the street by a British military patrol.

The highest court in the land upheld the findings of the Court of Appeal in December 2005 and High Court over the UK's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights as applied to the conduct of British troops operating within a foreign territory.

Both courts found that Mr Mousa was covered by human rights laws because he was in the custody of British troops, but the others were not because they died in the street where there was no UK jurisdiction.

Shami Chakrabarti - director of Liberty, the human rights group which was among organisations backing the case - said the immediate implication of the ruling was that there must be a full independent inquiry whenever detainees "suffer inhuman treatment, torture or death while detained in UK military establishments anywhere in the world".

Lawyers involved in the case for the Iraqis said the findings by the House of Lords were "historic". They said the ruling in the case of Baha Mousa meant there must now be a full, independent and public inquiry into the facts of all cases in which Iraqis in British detention have been abused, tortured, killed or subjected to sexual or religious humiliation.