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