A man died in Iraqi army detention after allegedly being beaten, given electric shocks with a cattle prod and burnt with cigarettes in a case that highlights the abuses suffered by detainees at the hands of Iraqi security forces.

The fresh allegations undermine claims by Britain and the United States that the new Iraqi Government respects the rule of law and human rights, more than six years after Saddam Hussein was ousted.

In addition the US Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into allegations that one of its agents in Baghdad assisted in the beating of an Iraqi suspect, according to a former American adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Defence.

Thomas Cruise, who worked at the ministry’s human rights branch, says that the US-led coalition turned a blind eye to other abuses such as the alleged torture and murder two years ago of Adnan Awad Mohammed Thaib al-Jumaili. He raised that case with Ann Clwyd, MP, Gordon Brown’s human rights envoy to Iraq, while she was on a visit to Baghdad this year.

Ms Clwyd briefed the Prime Minister, who instructed the British Embassy in Baghdad to follow up the matter with Iraqi officials. No one has been found guilty. “Torture is part of Iraqi society,” said Mr Cruise, who left Iraq in June after spending 2½ years as a senior, contracted adviser to the Defence Ministry under a training programme run by the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I), a branch of the US-led coalition.

“The majority of people think it’s totally acceptable to torture detainees. If you have a culture that accepts torture then it’s pretty hard to instil a respect for human rights and the rule of law,” he told The Times. “We as Americans and the coalition go over there and say we are there to teach Iraqis respect for the rule of law so it’s not only hypocritical but sadly ironic that we have people that allow murderers of detainees to walk away with total impunity.”

The Times has seen pictures taken in January of several detainees at a crowded Iraqi army detention centre in northern Iraq, with markings on their backs and arms consistent with being beaten and put in stress positions. Mr Cruise also outlined claims that an unnamed detainee had his penis cut off by a senior official at the Defence Ministry, and that an investigation into the incident was unexpectedly closed down.

In the worst case encountered by the former adviser, Mr al-Jumaili was arrested in a raid in May 2007 in Abu Ghraib, an area west of Baghdad that shares its name with the notorious prison where a group of US soldiers abused Iraqi detainees in the aftermath of the invasion.

Mr al-Jumaili, suspected of terrorist activity but detained illegally because there was no arrest warrant for him, was taken to an Iraqi army holding centre for questioning. Almost a fortnight later a visiting team of US military advisers found him badly bruised. The detainee was moved to an American medical facility but no serious health problems were diagnosed so he was returned to the Iraqi base.

The next morning Mr al-Jumaili was dead. An Iraqi post-mortem examination concluded that he died of internal bleeding caused by physical trauma. Photographs show heavy bruising and evidence that cigarettes were stubbed out on his backside.

The Defence Ministry, pressured by Mr Cruise, began an investigation into the suspected torture and murder but he says that the case was hampered by a general lack of will. It took six months, for example, to get permission to examine the room where Mr al-Jumaili was interrogated. “We found implements of torture, including wooden clubs and a black electrical cattle prod,” Mr Cruise said. “We also found blood splattering on the walls from three different males. This shows that the torture of Adnan wasn’t an isolated incident.”

A suspect, Lieutenant Nabil Rahman Ali, was arrested in June last year after Mr Cruise sought the help of FBI investigators based in Baghdad.

Three months later an Iraqi judge freed the officer, saying that there was insufficient evidence to charge him, a claim that Mr Cruise refutes. “This case is just an incredible study into what happens when Iraqis fail to follow their own rule of law,” he said. “It was absolutely, without a doubt in my mind, an act of judicial corruption and misconduct.”

Mr Cruise says that US and British officials in Baghdad failed to pressure their Iraqi counterparts about the death of Mr al-Jumaili, as well as other cases of alleged abuse, despite his numerous verbal and written protestations. Mr Cruise believes that the US is not helping the situation by, at times, failing to lead by example.

He lodged a complaint with the FBI that an agent in Baghdad restrained an Iraqi suspect while an Iraqi interrogator beat him in February last year, and that the agent’s supervisor failed to look into the incident. “The FBI eventually and reluctantly, I believe, opened an investigation,” he said. Mr Cruise also informed MNSTC-I about the incident in a letter on March 5 this year.

Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, said that torture was vastly improved from Saddam’s time. “We have formed a committee that looks into any alleged violation,” he added.

An MNSTC-I spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Kolb, said that the unit’s work in the country had produced positive results. Mr Cruise agrees that cases of abuse at about 32 detention facilities run by the Defence Ministry are much lower than before.

Nonetheless, in January the human rights office of the Defence Ministry found more than 1,000 detainees at three centres in Ninevah, northern Iraq, including about 550 who had orders issued for their release. The pictures seen by The Times were taken there. Many prisoners were held in cramped and unhygienic conditions. More than 700 were eventually freed.

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