"A senior aide wrote to the prime minster in July 2005 to tell him that the attorney general had met army prosecutors that afternoon to discuss the case against soldiers alleged to have beaten Baha Mousa to death. It was likely the case would proceed to a court martial, wrote Antony Phillipson, the then prime minister's private secretary for foreign affairs, adding: Although if the AG felt that the case were better dealt with in a civil court he could direct accordingly. It must not!"
"Two years later, a corporal who brutally mistreated Mousa and other civilians at a detention centre in Basra in September 2003 was court-martialed and became the first British soldier to be convicted of a war crime. Cpl Donald Payne, who was jailed for a year and dismissed from the army, punched and kicked the civilians when they were hooded and handcuffed and conducted what he called the choir, striking the prisoners in sequence, their groans or shrieks making up the music."
Tony Blair pressured officials to prevent British soldiers accused of beating Baha Mousa to death from being tried in civil courts or at the ICC. In July 2005 Antony Phillipson reported that the attorney general had met army prosecutors and that the matter would likely proceed to court martial, warning that civil jurisdiction could be directed but Blair wrote 'It must not!'. Corporal Donald Payne was later court-martialed, convicted under the ICC Act 2001 of inhuman treatment, jailed and dismissed for punching, kicking and organizing the systematic abuse of hooded, handcuffed detainees at a Basra detention centre.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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