Last week the British High Court pronounced a memorable decision: every military man of H.B.M undertaking a campaign in foreign countries, will be bound over the Human Rights Act for the prisoner’s treatment - the British fundamental chart protecting the human rights. The Supreme Court justicesj rejected the point of the Ministry of Defence and the high court public prosecutor Lord Goldsmith, who argued that the Act was not enforceable to the foreign prisoners in care to the British army, such as the case of Baha Mousa, an Iraqui prisoner dead in 2003.

Baha Mousa. With four votes to one, the High Court judging college decreed that the Human Rights Act jurisdiction is bestowing also in the “overseas territories”, included the detention centre under the British army’s control. The resolution opens a way towards the identification of the culprit for the deaths and tortures during imprisonment. Phil Shiner, counsel for the defence of Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old receptionist in a hotel in Bassora tortured and killed by British soldiers, will claim a huge compensation to the Government not only for Mousa’s family but also for twenty other Iraqis abused by British soldiers. Shami Chakrabarti, director for the national Council for civil rights said "this memorable decision means that no British Guantanamo will ever be possible anywhere in the world".

Northern Ireland docet. As a result of the appearance in the court martial of seven soldiers charged with tortures and abuses on 10 Iraqi prisoners who witnessed, came out that the Government repealed a prohibition dating back to 1972 which banned hooding, sleep and food deprivation and the noise and light torture. The prohibition dates back to the Northern Irish conflict when the Prime Minister Edward Heath put it into force. The High Court decision also happens after the interrogations carried out through the above activities in the military centre of Chicksand, in Bedfordshire.

Independent investigation. The decision now forces the Government to set up an independent inquiry, short, impartial, and effective on anybody expected to be dead through State officers (in this case British soldiers). This is set by the Human Rights Act, a government law which, from 1998 takes into account (and starting from 200 enforces) in the British territories the European convention for human rights forbidding tortures and inhuman and demeaning treatments.