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Inquiry publishes first witness list

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 10 September 2009

The Baha Mousa Inquiry will resume its opening statements at 10am on Monday 21 September 2009. On that day, legal teams for most of the Core Participants will deliver their opening addresses, each speaking for approximately 20 minutes.

Module 1 – the history of conditioning techniques – will follow. Module 1 evidence is likely to be brief and is anticipated to conclude on Tuesday 22 September.

The Inquiry will then begin hearing oral evidence from witnesses in relation to Module 2. This Module relates to Baha Mousa and the other detainees and is likely to last at least until Christmas. The Module will examine the circumstances surrounding their arrest, detention and subsequent questioning, and seek to ascertain what happened to them and who was involved from the 14 to16 September 2003.

The Inquiry intends to call its first witness to give oral evidence on Wednesday 23 September. Today, it publishes its first provisional witness list which is attached to this press notice. The list, which will be updated on a weekly basis and published on the Inquiry’s website, contains details of those witnesses who will be called to give evidence over the subsequent fortnight’s hearings. The first witnesses will be those detained with Baha Mousa in 2003. Some of these former detainees have been granted anonymity and shall only be referred to by ciphers D001 to D007. Colonel Daoud Mousa, Baha Mousa’s father, is timetabled to give evidence after the final detainee. The Inquiry will then begin calling military and ex-military witnesses.

Notes to Editors

1. All Hearings are held at the Inquiry's premises in the City of London: Finlaison House, 15-17 Furnival Street, London EC4A 1AB. (View location map).

2. A timetable of when the Inquiry will be sitting can be found at (http://www.bahamousainquiry.org/hearings/timetable.htm). The Inquiry will usually sit Monday-Thursday each week, and any changes to this timetable will be notified on the website. Hearings begin at 10am each day and will usually finish by 4:15pm.

3. An issues list is available on the Inquiry’s website at www.bahamousainquiry.org/key_documents/index.htm. This is designed as a guide to the issues that the Inquiry is likely to cover and it may be subject to revision from time to time.

4. All attendees (including accredited reporters) will be required to undergo security checks in line with normal court procedures before being admitted to the building.

5. Reporting Rules: Sir William Gage highlighted at the Preliminary Hearing that at the Court Martial of seven servicemen arising out of these events, the presiding Judge Advocate made an order, which remains in force for this Inquiry, requiring the media not to publish certain features and information in relation to the Defendants. A note on these restrictions and subsequent orders made by the Chairman relating to the Detainees and other witnesses are available on the website.

Contacts:

Mark Fenwick
Phone: 020 7261 8541
mark.fenwick@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Suzanne Halls
Phone: 020 7261 8327
suzanne.halls@coi.gsi.gov.uk