The Ministry of Defence has agreed to pay almost £3m in damages to Iraqis who were tortured by UK troops in Basra in 2003, their solicitors say.

Nine Iraqi men who were mistreated and the father of a man beaten to death in custody will share £2.83m in compensation.

The payout came after two days of negotiations between lawyers for the group and the MoD.

In March the MoD admitted breaching the human rights of the abused Iraqis.

At that time, Defence Secretary Des Browne said the government admitted "substantive breaches" of parts of the European Convention on Human Rights which protect the right to life and prohibit torture.

Court martial

One of the men was Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel receptionist was beaten to death in September 2003.

He and the other Iraqi men were arrested at a hotel where weapons and suspected bomb-making equipment were found in 2003. Mr Mousa was detained under suspicion of being an insurgent.

Seven members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR), now the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, faced the most expensive court martial in British history over the case.

Six soldiers were acquitted after the six-month hearing in Bulford, Wiltshire, but a seventh soldier admitted treating Iraqis inhumanely.

Cpl Donald Payne was jailed for a year and dismissed from the Army.

Mr Mousa's post-mortem examination showed he suffered asphyxiation and had some 93 injuries to his body.

A public inquiry into his death was announced by Mr Browne in May 2008.

(BBC)

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