On 13 June, the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, the country’s supreme judicial body, delivered an important ruling on the application of the European Convention for Human Rights to the actions of British troops in Iraq in the case of Al-Skeini and Others v the Secretary of State for Defence. The case concerned the deaths of six Iraqi civilians in Basra in 2003. Five of them, Hazim Jum'aa Gatteh Al-Skeini, Muhammad Abdul Ridha Salim, Hannan Mahaibas Sadde Shmailawi, Waleed Sayay Muzban, and Raid Hadi Sabir Al-Musawi were shot dead by British military patrols. The sixth, Baha Mousa, was arrested and died at the hands of British troops in a military base. The families of the six victims had requested the UK courts to overturn the Defence Secretary’s refusal to order an independent inquiry into the killings.