They are demanding another public inquiry into wider allegations surrounding the abuse of more than 200 Iraqi detainees held near Basra. They are also expected to demand the prosecution of individual soldiers or officials. February 2010 Giving evidence to the inquiry, Mendonca accepts responsibility for Mousa's death but says the tragedy was a "one-off" and insists he left Basra a better place. He found Mousa, along with six other hotel employees, with their hands behind their heads lying on the hotel lobby floor. Only one soldier of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment pleaded guilty. Six others – including Colonel Jorge Mendonca, the commanding officer – were acquitted of negligence and abuse. As its professional head, I will take the lead in implementing the specific recommendations relating to the Army as soon as possible, in accordance with the direction of the Secretary of State for Defence.

The nation places its trust in us and we expect our soldiers’ conduct to reflect that trust, no matter how challenging the environment may be.

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May 2004: Amid reports of several cases of abuse by British soldiers against Iraqi civilians, Geoff Hoon, the then defence secretary, says a decision is pending on whether to take action against any soldiers involved in Mousa's death. Military facilities at which abuse occurred were under the command of the relevant commanding officer" and "each detainee was medically examined at various points by doctors ... It is inconceivable that senior officers did not witness what was happening, or otherwise be aware of these incidents and practices." Case studies

This step change in procedures means that I am confident that all soldiers deploying on operations today are fully trained in their legal responsibilities and can be in no doubt about the need to treat detainees humanely and with respect.

Corporal Donald Payne – admitted inhumane treatment, cleared of manslaughter and perverting the course of justice Eight or more civilians died in the custody of British troops in the weeks after the invasion of Iraq, despite frequent warnings by the army's most senior legal adviser there about unlawful treatment of detainees, the inquiry heard. A video still of a British soldier with hooded Iraqi detainees that was played to the Baha Mousa inquiry. Photograph: PA Singh said evidence heard by the inquiry showed that many people passed the TDF while Mousa and the other detainees were being abused there. He said: "This tells us something, we suggest, about the general environment in which the abuse was able to take place. Because, again, many people at least could, and probably did, hear the abuse taking place, and that again tells one something about the culture of impunity that the perpetrators seem to have felt." He pointed to evidence that the Iraqi detainees were forced to scream in an orchestrated "choir". This is an orchestrated narrative: cases are carefully selected and dropped into the public domain, and the press and public lap them up. The reality, of course, is somewhat different.

The 26-year-old died two days after his arrest and a post-mortem examination found he had suffered asphyxiation and at least 93 injuries to his body, including fractured ribs and a broken nose.

He also heard how the Ministry of Defence's top legal advisers failed to seek the advice of Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, who was known to take the view that British troops in Iraq were bound by the Human Rights Act.

September 2006: Corporal Donald Payne, 35, pleads guilty to inhumane treatment of Mousa, becoming the first British soldier to admit to a war crime, as the court martial of the seven soldiers charged over Mousa's death begins. Payne denies charges of manslaughter and perverting the course of justice. The six others, including commanding officer Colonel Jorge Mendonca MBE, plead not guilty to their charges. In December 2010, two high court judges ruled that allegations that more than 100 detainees had suffered systemic abuse was supported by evidence that "each detainee was medically examined at various points by doctors and medical operatives under a duty to report ill-treatment". When the court's judgment was brought to the attention of the British Medical Association, the organisation insisted it was unable to take action. Baha Mousa was one of 10 Iraqis detained in Basra in September 2003 by members of the 1st Battalion The Queen Lancashire Regiment on suspicion of being an insurgent. October 2008: The public inquiry chairman, Sir William Gage, makes an opening statement in which he reveals that the soldiers have been granted immunity from prosecution based on their evidence to the hearings.Shiner's case is built in part on the conviction of the UK at the European court in Strasbourg in 1977 of "inhuman and degrading treatment" of detainees in a case brought by the Irish Republic. I wonder what George Orwell would have thought about all this. He wrote once that: "It seems to me nonsense, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects." His main target then was the evil of totalitarianism. But I would like to think his underlying aim was to challenge indifference to the suffering of others. That for me was the real devil which emerged amid the detail of my book. Singh, in his closing submissions to the inquiry, raised questions about Mendonca's role. He alleged that the Iraqi prisoners were beaten by soldiers in the group led by Lieutenant Craig Rodgers before the occasion Mendonca claimed to have made his visit. The British government will argue in court that this apparent litany of abuse by troops it sent to "liberate" the Iraqis does not warrant a public inquiry, since it was not "systemic".