source: The Final Call

published: 13 January 2026

Image Credit: Jsakhorn38 at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Newly disclosed government files show that former UK prime minister Tony Blair intervened to prevent civilian or international prosecution of British soldiers involved in the death of Baha Mousa, the Iraqi detainee killed in UK custody in one of the Iraq War’s most notorious abuse cases.

Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel receptionist and father of two, died on September 15, 2003 after being tortured for 36 hours at a British military facility in Basra. A post-mortem recorded 93 injuries on his body. Corporal Donald Payne later admitted to leading what soldiers called “the choir,” a coordinated series of punches and kicks inflicted on detainees.

The sustained abuse meted out to father-of-two Baha Mousa, 26, represented a "very serious breach of discipline" by members of 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (1QLR), the landmark inquiry found.

In a July 2005 memo, Blair’s private secretary for foreign affairs, Antony Phillipson, wrote to the prime minister that the case was likely to go to a court martial and that the attorney general retained the discretion to direct it toward a civil court if deemed appropriate.

Blair hand-wrote on the document that the case “must not” be handled by a civil court. “It must not!” the former PM wrote on top of this paragraph in the files released.

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