Lord Goldsmith refuses to publish advice to Army over use of torture

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, is under growing pressure to disclose his advice to the Army on whether British soldiers in Iraq needed to comply with the Human Rights Act.

Human rights groups and lawyers acting for Iraqi victims of abuse claim Lord Goldsmith's advice meant soldiers were told to ignore the human rights legislation when detaining civilians after the invasion in March 2003.

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• Letters: Iraq detainees

Yesterday, The Independent reported that emails sent between senior legal advisers showed there was disquiet among military lawyers about that advice.

Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers, who is representing Iraqi victims of abuse in the High Court, said: "It is a matter of public record that UK soldiers were hooding all detainees, sometimes with 3 sandbags and even with old plastic cement bags, and that this was going on in temperatures of 57C. Any right-thinking person knows this amounts to torture.

"I am astonished that the Attorney General's legal advice could have been anything other than an unequivocal reminder that it is absolutely prohibited to torture... But the soldiers were not told this and there was still a debate going on at the highest level, even nine months after Baha Mousa died in British custody."

In a letter to The Independent today, Lord Goldsmith said his office did not advise the Army that the use of hooding or stress positions were legitimate techniques.

But in an interview with BBC Radio 4 he repeated that he would not publish his advice to the Army.

Lord Goldsmith replies: Letters to the Editor