Baha Mousa Inquiry: Army To Be Cleared Of Systemic Torture During Iraq War

PRESS ASSOCIATION -- An independent report into how a hotel worker died while being held in British custody in Iraq will clear the Army of systematic torture and mistreatment, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

But the document will criticise the conduct of individual soldiers and highlight "numerous failures" in the Army's chain of command, the newspaper says.

The official findings of the three-year inquiry into the brutal death of Iraqi civilian Baha Mousa and the abuse of nine other Iraqi men detained with him are expected to be released on September 8.

Father-of-two Mr Mousa, 26, sustained 93 injuries while being held by 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (1QLR) in Basra, southern Iraq, in 2003.

The judge-led inquiry, chaired by Sir William Gage, was ordered in 2008 and became the biggest examination of military conduct in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion.

It heard oral evidence from 247 witnesses over 115 days of hearings between July 2009 and October 2010.

According to the Telegraph, the inquiry has found no evidence that British soldiers conducted wholesale abuse, torture and murder of suspected insurgents during the occupation of southern Iraq.

However, it will accuse former members of 1QLR of "closing ranks" and both senior officers and serving soldiers of a dereliction of duty.

The report will also criticise the nature of the original investigation into how Mr Mousa died, according to the newspaper.

Mr Mousa was working as a receptionist at the Ibn Al Haitham hotel in Basra when it was raided by British forces in the early hours of September 14 2003.