The Daily Mail has published a front-page notice about a correction and issued disciplinary notes to senior staff after falsely claiming an Iraqi man who won compensation from the British government was an insurgent who had been found with a bomb.

The newspaper published the original story on its front page on 15 December under the headline “Another human rights fiasco!”, with the subheading “Iraqi ‘caught red-handed with bomb’ wins £33,000 – because our soldiers kept him in custody for too long”.

The Daily Mail published the correction across the bottom of the front page of the Friday 27 July 2018 edition. Photograph: Daily Mail

The story covered a judge’s decision to award money to Abd Ali Hameed al-Waheed after he had been unlawfully imprisoned and badly treated by British armed forces during the Iraq war.

The newspaper ran the story despite the judge concluding claims that he had been caught with a bomb had been discredited shortly after his detention, and that the claim by British soldiers that al-Waheed had been caught with a bomb was “pure fiction”.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) ordered the front-page notice after concluding the newspaper had breached rules on accuracy in its reporting of the case.

“In these circumstances, the reference to these serious allegations against Mr al-Waheed, without making clear they had been disproven, seriously misrepresented the basis of the judgment reported,” the press regulator said.

The judge concluded that there was no evidence the man had been an insurgent and he had been detained without any legal basis for 33 days in 2007. Contrary to the front-page claim, only £3,300 of the payment was for unlawful detention, and al-Waheed was awarded £15,000 for being beaten after his arrest, and a further £15,000 for ill treatment.



In its defence, the newspaper argued it had based the reporting on a three-page press summary of the 239-page judgment, combined with previous reporting on the case.



Ipso rejected the Daily Mail’s explanation that it was reasonable for it to have relied on previous press coverage, which had referenced the “red-handed” claim, to provide context to the reporting.

The newspaper said a major internal investigation was conducted following the decision to publish, and as a result, “strongly worded disciplinary notes were sent to seven senior members of staff”, which made it clear “that if errors of the same nature were to happen again, their careers would be at risk”.

• This article was amended on 30 July 2018 to clarify that the notice on the front page pointed to the Ipso adjudication inside the paper.

