A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa by A. T. Williams

On 15 September 2003 Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, was killed by British Army troops in Iraq. He had been arrested the previous day in Basra and was taken to a military base for questioning. For forty-eight hours he and nine other innocent civilians had their heads encased in sandbags and their wrists bound by plastic handcuffs and had been kicked and punched with sustained cruelty.



A succession of guards and casual army visitors took pleasure in beating the Iraqis, humiliating them, forcing them into stress positions in temperatures up to 50 degrees Centigrade, and watching them suffer in the dirty concrete building where they were held. Other soldiers, officers, medics, the padre, did not take part in the violence but they saw what was happening and did nothing to stop it. Some knew it was wrong. Some weren't sure. Some were too scared to intervene. But none said anything or enough until it was far too late and Baha Mousa had been beaten to death.



This book tells the inside story of these crimes and their aftermath. It examines the institutional brutality, the bureaucratic apathy, the flawed military police inquiry and the farcical court martial that attempted to hold people criminally responsible. Even though a full public inquiry reported its findings into the crimes in September 2011, its mandate restricted what it could say. The full story, told with the power of a true-crime expose or court-room drama, shows how this was not simply about a few bad men or 'rotten apples'. It shines a light on all those involved in the crime and its investigation, from the lowest squaddie to the elite of the army and politicians in Cabinet. What it reveals is devastating.

A former Army doctor has been struck off the medical register after his misconduct over the death of Iraqi detainee Baha Mousa in 2003.

Derek Keilloh, of Aberdeen, was a medical officer with the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in Basra when Mr Mousa died in British Army custody.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard he had 93 injuries.

The MPTS said Dr Keilloh, who practises in North Yorkshire, was aware of the injuries but failed to report them.

He supervised a failed resuscitation attempt to save the life of Mr Mousa, who had been hooded, handcuffed and severely beaten by soldiers.

The hotel receptionist had been arrested in a crackdown by soldiers who believed, wrongly, that he was an insurgent involved in the murder of four of their colleagues the month before

16 December 2012 Last updated at 16:46

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Doctor Derek Keilloh ruled 'dishonest' over death of Iraqi detainee

Dr Derek Keilloh denied making untrue statements about the 2003 case

Continue reading the main story

Baha Mousa inquiry

• Iraq death doctor is a 'criminal'
• Medic denies Baha Mousa claims
• Doctor faces Iraq beating hearing
• Abuse appalling, inquiry finds

A former army medic has been found guilty of misleading and dishonest conduct after the death of Iraqi detainee Baha Mousa in 2003.

Dr Derek Keilloh, from Aberdeen, was serving as a medical officer with the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in Basra.

Mr Mousa died with 93 injuries in British army custody.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service ruled Dr Keilloh was aware of the injuries but failed to report them or examine other detainees.

Dr Keilloh had told the hearing, being prosecuted by the General Medical Council, there were no visible injuries as he tried to treat Mr Mousa before confirming his death.

Mr Mousa had been hooded with a sandbag for nearly 24 hours and suffered 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, during the final 36 hours of his life in the custody of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.

Dr Keilloh had claimed he only spotted dried blood around the nose of the 26-year-old hotel receptionist.

The GP faced the misconduct hearing over allegations that he failed to ensure written records were made of medical examinations of civilian detainees.

He was also accused of failing to examine Mr Mousa, a father of two, not checking the condition of other detainees and not notifying senior officers about mistreatment.

Baha Mousa

An inquiry into the death of a hotel receptionist in British custody in Iraq will clear the Army of systematic torture, it is reported.
But individual soldiers will be accused of "closing ranks" and dereliction of duty, and the Army's command chain criticised, the Sunday Telegraph says.
The judge-led probe into claims troops beat Baha Mousa to death in 2003 is due to publish its findings on 8 September.
The Ministry of Defence said it would look carefully at the inquiry's report.
It said more than 100,000 service personnel served in Iraq and the vast majority conducted themselves with "extraordinary courage, professionalism and decency in very demanding circumstances".
Nevertheless, it said, the actions that led to the death of Mr Mousa were "shameful and inexcusable".

a stain indeed....

The former head of the Army has told an inquiry into the death of an Iraqi civilian that the hooding of him and other detainees was inhumane.
General Sir Michael Jackson said the death of 26-year-old Baha Mousa, in Basra in 2003, remained "a stain on the character of the British Army".
The inquiry is investigating claims UK soldiers beat to death Mr Mousa.
It has already heard that Mr Mousa had been hooded for almost 24 hours and systematically beaten.
He was found dead with 93 injuries after being held in the custody of 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (1QLR).

So horribly frustrating....knowing we're being lied to and knowing the bastards will admit it eventually....when most people have forgotten all about it.....


Ex-Labour minister Adam Ingram has admitted misleading MPs over British troops' hooding of Iraqi prisoners.
In a Parliamentary answer he denied UK forces used hooding as an interrogation technique despite having seen papers to the contrary, a public inquiry heard.
The inquiry is investigating claims UK soldiers beat to death Iraqi Baha Mousa, 26, in Basra in September 2003.
Mr Ingram was copied in on a memo that revealed Mr Mousa was hooded for nearly 24 of 36 hours in custody before dying.
He also received another document stating Mr Mousa, a hotel receptionist, and his colleagues were hooded on the advice of an interrogation expert.
'Not accurate'
Mr Ingram had assured the then head of the Parliamentary joint committee on human rights, Jean Corston, that hooding was only used while detainees were being transported.
In a letter dated nine months after Mr Mousa's death, he wrote: "I should make absolutely clear that hooding was only used during the transit of prisoners. It was not used as an interrogation technique."
In hindsight it would have been better if the department had reminded me of all the documentation
Adam Ingram
But he admitted to the inquiry in London on Wednesday this information should have been "more specific".
He said: "It [hooding] could have been used within an interrogation area for the security of the individual because that individual may be coming to give evidence... it's clearly not a very precise term."
Rabinder Singh QC, counsel for Mr Mousa's family, said to Mr Ingram: "It's just not accurate, is it?" Mr Ingram replied: "That's correct."
Mr Ingram, the armed forces minister from 2001 to 2007, also assured Labour MP Kevin McNamara that the British military did not employ hooding to question suspects.
He said in a Parliamentary answer dated June 28 2004: "We are not aware of any incidents in which United Kingdom interrogators are alleged to have used hooding as an interrogation technique."
But this contradicted a Ministry of Defence document, dated September 18 2003, seen by Mr Ingram, the inquiry heard.

Iraqi hotel worker Baha Mousa, 26, died in Basra in September 2003
The memo stated: "In this instance the tactical questioning (TQ) of the suspects was conducted by two intelligence corps staff sergeants, both fully trained in TQ.
"It would appear that the hooding of the suspects took place on the advice of one of the staff sergeants."
Mr Ingram said: "In hindsight it would have been better if the department had reminded me of all the documentation.
"It certainly would not have been within my power to remember everything that I had been informed in writing or verbally."
Mr Mousa was found dead with 93 separate injuries after being held in the custody of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.
The inquiry has heard that the troops used "conditioning" methods on Iraqi prisoners, such as hooding, sleep deprivation and making them stand in painful stress positions with their knees bent and hands outstretched.
The techniques were banned by the government in 1972 following an investigation into interrogation in Northern Ireland.

Thank you David Davis....for speaking out in Parliament earlier...Reported in The Guardian....How British Intelligence used Pakistani torturers to do their dirty work for them...

Davis said Ahmed was "viciously tortured by the ISI. He [Ahmed] claims among other things, he was beaten with wooden staves, the size of cricket stumps,whipped with a three-foot length of tyre rubber and had three fingernails removed from his left hand. There is a dispute between British intelligence officers as to exactly when his fingernails were removed, but an independent pathologist confirmed it happened during the period when he was in Pakistani custody."
Davis called on ministers to examine the in camera sections of legal argument before Ahmed's trial and all relevant police and intelligence agency records; publish current guidelines on interrogation of detainees held overseas; and establish if any intelligence officer was disciplined.
"The judge in the court case intimated that disciplinary action should be considered. Was this done? If not, why not?"
Davis also said there was a pressing need for an inquiry into Britain's involvement in torture. "The Americans have made a clean breast of their complicity, whilst explicitly not prosecuting the junior officers who were acting under instruction. We have done the opposite. As it stands, we are awaiting a police investigation which will presumably end in the prosecution of frontline officers. At the same time the government is fighting tooth and nail to use state secrecy to cover up both crimes and political embarrassments, to protect those who are the real villains of the piece, those who approved the policies in the first place."