MOSCOW, September 16 (RAPSI) – The Grand Chamber of The European Court of Human Rights has deemed the arrest and detainment of Iraqi citizen Tarek Hassan during the 2003 campaign by the British military, according to the judgment made public by the court on Tuesday.

The application was filed by Hassan’s brother, Khadim, currently residing in Syria. Before the 2003 invasion, the Khadim was working as a general manager in the national secretariat of the Ba’ath Party, at the time the governing party under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. According to the application, Mr Hassan was also a General in El Quds Army, the private army of the Ba’ath Party.

In 2003, the British military came to the applicant’s house and arrested his brother  Tarek, telling the family that he will be released as soon as Khadim will give himself up.

According to the court records, UK recognized Tarek’s arrest as lawful, but denied his status as a hostage, declaring him a suspect POW. He was released after an interrogation in May 2003, according to the UK and US military officials.

The applicant stated that his brother Tarek did not contact his family after his release, and later his body with multiple gunshot wounds was discovered in September 2003. The UK representatives pointed out that no discernable proof of cause of death was presented to the court, and the body was found outside of the then British controlled territory.

In 2007 Mr. Hassan brought proceedings in the British administrative court seeking a declaration that  there had been a breach of his human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights,  compensation and an order requiring the government to carry out an inquiry into the death of his  brother. However, the case was dismissed after the court found that Camp Bucca was a US rather than a UK military establishment, and that the UK therefore did not have the relevant jurisdiction.

The applicant turned to ECHR in June 2009. In his application, he alleged that his brother had been arrested and detained by British forces in Iraq and had subsequently been found dead in unexplained circumstances. He complained under Article 5, 1, 2, 3 and 4 (right to liberty and security) of the Convention that the arrest and detention had been arbitrary and unlawful and lacking in procedural safeguards. He also complained under Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment) and 5 that the British authorities had failed to carry out an investigation into the circumstances of his brother’s detention, ill-treatment and death.

The Grand Chamber recognized that Tarek was kept under the UK military jurisdiction after his arrest in April 2003, up to his release from Bucca camp in May 2003. However, the court held that there had been no violation of Article 5 ,2, 3 or 4 in the circumstances of the present case.