6
HASSAN v. THE UNITED KINGDOM – JUDGMENT
been to university and spoke English. According to the applicant, “[W]hen
they approached the British military authorities the British told them I had
to surrender myself to them before they would release my brother”.
13. According to a summary of a telephone interview with the
applicant’s neighbour, Mr Salim Hussain Nassir Al-Ubody, dated
2 February 2007, Tarek Hassan was taken away by British soldiers on an
unknown date in April at around 4.30 a.m., with his hands tied behind his
back. Mr Al-Ubody stated that he approached one of the Iraqis who
accompanied the soldiers to ask what they wanted, and was told that the
soldiers had come to arrest the applicant. Three days later, the applicant
telephoned Mr Al-Ubody and asked him to find a guard for his house and to
find out from the British army what had happened to Tarek Hassan. Two
days later, Mr Al-Ubody went to the British headquarters at the
Shatt-Al-Arab Hotel. He asked an Iraqi translator if he could find out
anything about Tarek Hassan. Two days later, when Mr Al-Ubody returned,
the translator informed him that the British forces were keeping
Tarek Hassan until the applicant surrendered. The translator further advised
Mr Al-Ubody not to return, as this might expose him to questioning.
C. Detention at Camp Bucca
14. Both parties agreed that Tarek Hassan was taken by British forces to
Camp Bucca. This Camp, situated about 2.5 kilometres from Umm Qasr
and about 70 kilometres south of Al-Basrah was first established on
23 March 2003 as a United Kingdom detention facility. However, it
officially became a United States facility, known as “Camp Bucca”, on
14 April 2003. In April 2003 the Camp was composed of eight compounds,
divided by barbed wire fencing, each with a single entry point. Each
compound contained open-sided tents capable of housing several hundred
detainees, a water tap, latrines and an uncovered area.
15. For reasons of operational convenience, the United Kingdom
continued to detain individuals they had captured at Camp Bucca. One
compound was set aside for internees detained by the United Kingdom on
suspicion of criminal offences. In addition, the United Kingdom operated a
separate compound at the Camp for its Joint Forward Interrogation Team
(JFIT). This compound had been built by British forces and continued to be
administered by them. Although detainees captured by both the United
Kingdom and the United States armies were interrogated at the
JFIT compound, and teams of United Kingdom and United States
interrogators worked there, the United Kingdom JFIT team controlled the
detention and interrogation of all prisoners held there. Elsewhere in the
Camp, the United States army was responsible for guarding and escorting
detainees and the United Kingdom was obliged to reimburse the United
States for costs involved in maintaining United Kingdom captured detainees