A public inquiry into allegations that British troops murdered up to 20 unarmed prisoners and tortured five others following a fierce battle with Iraqi insurgents has opened in London with evidence that some of their death certificates recorded what were described as signs of severe mutilation.
Several of the deceased were said to bear signs of torture after their corpses were handed back to their families by British personnel at Camp Abu Naji, while the Iraqi death certificates recorded that one man's penis had been removed and two bodies were missing eyes, the inquiry was told on Monday.
But there is a "stark dispute" between the relatives of the dead men and the Ministry of Defence over the way in which the deaths occurred, said Jonathan Acton Davis QC, counsel to the inquiry.
"The Iraqi witnesses say that the evidence points to there having been a number of Iraqi men having been taken into Camp Abu Naji alive by the British military on 14 May 2004, and who were handed back to their families dead the next day.
"The military say the evidence points to 20 Iraqi dead having been recovered from the battle … and handed back to the families the next day."
The two sides, said Acton Davis, could not reach agreement even over the number of deceased, or their identities.
The allegations arise out of a gun battle known as the battle of Danny Boy, which took place a year after the 2003 invasion of Iraq and underlined the way in which British troops were being drawn into an increasingly bloody insurgency rather than accepted as liberators following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Even as the inquiry opened on Monday, almost nine years after the battle, there were signs of legal disputes to come, with lawyers for relatives of the dead Iraqis saying its terms of reference were too narrow and the MoD arguing that it should be limited strictly to allegations of mistreatment that were the subject of preceding high court proceedings.
Acton Davis said both bids were to be rejected. The inquiry would not examine the manner in which men may have been killed on the battlefield; nor would it fail to examine fresh allegations of mistreatment.
"The claimants, the military, and indeed the public is entitled to an independent and effective investigation into all allegations made, even if some of them were not raised in the judicial review proceedings," he said.
The al-Sweady inquiry, which is named after Hamid al-Sweady, a 19-year-old alleged victim, will hear evidence from around 60 Iraqi witnesses, in London and Beirut, as well as up to 200 military witnesses. It is not expected to report before the end of next year.
The battle of Danny Boy began with an attack by insurgents on a checkpoint by that name, three miles (5km) north-east of Majar al-Kabir in south-east Iraq on 14 May 2004.
Acton Davis said the attack was first launched against vehicles and men of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. "A fierce battle followed that involved not only the Argylls but also the soldiers of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment. It resulted in many Iraqis being killed, and two British soldiers being wounded."
Acton Davis said the first responsibility of the inquiry would be to attempt to establish whether 20 Iraqi men were killed during the battle and their bodies taken to Camp Abu Naji, as the MoD insists was the case, or whether they were captured alive and then unlawfully killed during 14 and 15 May 2004.
In addition, the inquiry will examine allegations that five men taken prisoner following the same battle were mistreated at a second British base at Shaibah, near Basra, four months later.
The inquiry was established after a number of former prisoners and relatives of the dead men brought proceedings in the high court in London, demanding an independent inquiry in line with the requirements of the European convention on human rights.
It was ordered in November 2009 by the then defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, after high court judges accused the MoD of "lamentable" behaviour and "serious breaches" of its duty of candour during the court proceedings.
Acton Davis told the inquiry about the difficulties that had been encountered during attempts to recover documents concerning the events at Danny Boy and Camp Abu Naji.
Some difficulties resulted from the manner in which documents had been archived, while in 2010 investigators discovered in the files of the Royal Military Police a number of relevant papers which had been "entirely absent" from those disclosed by the MoD in the high court proceedings.
A further nine files of detainee records were handed over by the MoD in 2011. This led to six-week search of MoD archives by 12 members of the inquiry staff, which resulted in the recovery of 600 more relevant documents.
As of last week, evidence that the inquiry was still waiting to receive from the MoD included emails known to concern a visit by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to the British detention centre at Shaibah. The MoD is reported to have suppressed concerns expressed by the ICRC about the injuries they saw on the Iraqi detainees.
