Documents in the military court room in Colchester, Essex, where four soldiers and three ex-soldiers accused of the murder of an Iraqi civilian stood trial back in September 2005. Corporal Scott Evans, 32, Private Billy Nerney, 24, Private Samuel May, 25, Private Morne Vosloo, 26, and former Privates Daniel Harding, 25, Roberto Di-Gregorio, 24 and Scott Jackson, 26, were accused of murder and violent disorder following the death of Nadhem Abdullah on 11 May 2003 in a roadside incident in Al U'Zayra. The case eventually collapsed and the men were cleared. The judge criticised the poor handling of the case by the Royal Military Police's special investigations unit. PA/Chris Rayburn. All rights reserved.
By 2010, the number of allegations of unlawful killing and abuse in detention had ballooned. Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) had registered 141 different claimants before the courts and the Ministry of Defence by 21 October of that year. They were gathered as one case, called Ali Zaki Mousa, after the first Iraqi on the list.
PIL argued that the range of ill treatment alleged by these claims suggested “systemic abuse”. In other words, it was not just the result of rogue military personnel but indicated a deliberate policy of abuse to break detainees as part of interrogation — or at best a failure by the military and political establishment to investigate, prevent and punish such practices effectively.
