Britain’s defense ministry will pay £2.83 million (US$5.6 million) to the family of an Iraqi man who died in the custody of British troops and to others who were abused, lawyers said on Thursday.
Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel receptionist, was badly beaten and died after being arrested on suspicion of being an insurgent in Basra, southern Iraq, six months after the US-led invasion in March 2003.
Seven British troops were court martialed over the case last year but all were cleared bar one, Corporal Donald Payne, who admitted inhumane treatment and was jailed for a year.
PHOTO: AP
The £2.83 million payout will be shared with eight other Iraqi men who were mistreated, the law firm Leigh Day, which represented the men, said in a statement.
“Our clients have been through hell over the last few years and this settlement will go some way to enabling our clients to have some semblance of a decent future life,” said Martyn Day, a senior partner at Leigh Day.
Mousa’s father Daoud, however, said the payout would not do much to ease his pain.
“The money will never compensate for the loss of my son,” he told TV broadcaster Channel 4 News.
“It just gives some sort of future for his children,” he said.
In May, British Defence Secretary Des Browne announced a public inquiry into Mousa’s death, describing it as a “terrible incident.”
The Ministry of Defence said on Thursday the settlement was “amicable” and accompanied by an admission of liability that the British troops had committed substantive breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights.
It has also apologized to the Mousa family and the other claimants.
“The claimants’ solicitors said that the settlement represented a fair deal for the claimants,” the ministry said in a statement.
A defense ministry spokeswoman said while most British troops had behaved well in Iraq, procedures and training had been improved to prevent further cases such as Mousa’s death.
“All but a handful of the more than 120,000 British troops who have served in Iraq have conducted themselves to the highest standards of behavior, displaying integrity and selfless commitment,” she said.
“But this does not excuse that during 2003 and 2004 a very small minority there committed acts of abuse and we condemn their actions,” she said.
“The army has done a great deal since these cases to improve procedures and training. But we are not complacent and continue to demand the very highest standards of conduct from all our troops,” she said.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS