Link: https://www.declassifieduk.org/death-of-iraqi-teacher-a-stain-on-british-army-says-former-top-lawyer/

Ali was a 35-year-old school teacher in Basra, southern Iraq when British soldiers detained him at his home in May 2003 in front of his wife and children, months after the US-led invasion.

Ali, described by witnesses as “very obese”, tried to communicate that he had a medical issue by pointing at his heart, but was ignored by soldiers at Camp Stephen, the Iraq Fatality Investigations (IFI) inquiry found.

Instead, he was forced by two soldiers to do “circuit-type exercises” and hold stress positions for two hours in over 40 degrees celsius “to relieve the boredom, play with his mind, make him feel uncomfortable and ‘muck about and have a bit of fun’”.

At the end of this gruelling ordeal, Ali collapsed from exhaustion. Rafferty characterised what the soldiers subjected Ali to as “acts of bullying and cruelty by those in a position of power”.

However, none of the soldiers involved will be prosecuted because the terms of the inquiry effectively gave them immunity.