Britain: The British government's handling of investigations into the deaths of Iraqi civilians in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq was condemned as "inadequate" by the Court of Appeal in London yesterday.
A senior judge said: "If international standards are to be observed, the task of investigating incidents in which a human life is taken by British forces must be completely taken away from the military chain of command and vested in the Royal Military Police."
Lord Justice Brooke, sitting with Lords Justice Sedley and Richards, made the call for reform as the government lost a test-case challenge over a refusal of the defence secretary to order an inquiry into the death of an Iraqi civilian allegedly tortured and killed while detained by British troops in Basra.
The appeal court upheld a High Court ruling that the British authorities had "extra-territorial jurisdiction" with regard to hotel worker Baha Mousa (26) and both the European Convention on Human Rights and the domestic Human Rights Act applied as he was being held in custody.
The families of five other Iraqi civilians killed in different incidents in the city, who were not being detained, were told their cases were not covered by British human rights law.
Both the government and the families were given permission to seek a final ruling from the House of Lords.
Later the Ministry of Defence welcomed the judges' ruling that it would be "premature" to make a finding, as the High Court had done, that the British authorities were in actual breach of Articles 2 and 3 of the convention.
The judges said the matter should go back to the High Court, but not be considered before the outcome of a pending court martial in which several soldiers are due to face charges in connection with Mr Mousa's death.
But Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers, representing the Iraqi families, said yesterday's ruling meant there must now be an independent investigation into Mr Mousa's death.
Earlier Lord Justice Brooke had expressed dissatisfaction with the way the British authorities had investigated fatalities involving British troops.
The judge said: "The inadequacy of the immediate post-death investigation made the task of pursuing any useful inquiries six to nine months later more difficult in some of these cases than it might otherwise have been.
"It is to be hoped that deficiencies of this kind will be remedied in future." The judge warned: "It could be difficult for a European government to decide to pursue policies that treated life as more readily expendable just because those whom their forces kill are not themselves European."
He said the obligation to comply with well-established international human rights standards would require, among other things, "a far greater investment in the resources available to the Royal Military Police than was available to them in Iraq, and a complete severance from the military chain of command.
Mr Shiner said: "The government must follow the court's very clear ruling that the military system of investigation and prosecution in torture and abuse cases is fundamentally flawed."
He also said yesterday's landmark ruling went beyond the earlier High Court decision by extending the scope of jurisdiction of the British authorities, applying human rights law, "to cases of Iraqi civilians being deprived of their liberty generally and then tortured". - (PA)