The Government’s handling of investigations into the deaths of Iraqi civilians in the aftermath of the war in Iraq was condemned as inadequate by the Court of Appeal today.

A senior judge said that the task of investigating incidents in which a human life is taken by British forces must be completely taken away from the military chain of command, and handed over to the Royal Military Police. And a "far greater investment" should also be made so that the RMP were trained and resourced to investigate thoroughly.

The judge warned that the changes could affect the way military actions were conducted. He said: "It could be difficult for a European government to decide to pursue policies that treated human life as more readily expendable just because those whom their forces kill are not themselves European."

Lord Justice Brooke, sitting with Lords Justice Sedley and Richards, today turned down the Government's legal challenge that it had no obligation to order an inquiry into the death of an Iraqi civilian, who was allegedly tortured and unlawfully killed while detained by British troops in Basra in south-east Iraq.

The appeal court upheld a High Court ruling that the UK authorities had "extra-territorial jurisdiction" with regard to 26-year-old hotel worker Baha Mousa, and that both the European Convention on Human Rights and the domestic Human Rights Act applied as he was being held in custody.

But the families of five other Iraqi civilians killed in different incidents in the city, who were not being detained in British custody, were told that their cases were not covered by UK human rights law. Lord Justice Brooke said it was "impossible to hold" that British forces were "in effective control" of Basra, where the five deaths happened between August and November 2003.

Both the Government and the families were given permission to seek a final ruling from the House of Lords, the highest court in the land.

Mr Mousa was working the night shift on the reception desk at the Ibn Al Haitham hotel in Basra on September 14, 2003, when soldiers burst in and ordered him, and six other employees, to lie on the ground

The staff were all arrested and taken to a nearby military base for checks. Four days later, Mr Mousa was dead. His father, a colonel in the local police force, went to identify his body and found his son bruised, bloody and beaten.

Witnesses have claimed that a bag was placed over his head, before he was repeated kicked and punched. His death certificate said that he died from asphyxia.British military authorities offered Mr Mousa's relatives $8,000 (£4,500) in compensation.

Mr Mousa's death was investigated by the Special Investigation Branch of the Royal Military Police and a post-mortem was carried out by a Home Office pathologist, who was flown out to Basra. The investigation into his death reported to the Ministry of Defence in April 2004, but its findings have never been made public.

Later the MoD welcomed the judges’ ruling that it would be "premature" to make a finding, as the High Court had done, that the UK authorities were in actual breach of Articles 2 and 3 of the convention - protecting the right to life and the right not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.The judges said the matter should go back to the High Court.

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