British Ministry of Defense documents on the Iraq war have reportedly been stolen from a lawyer for a private law firm on a train to London.
A suitcase containing the documents was stolen from a solicitor of the law firm Eversheds on her way from Leeds to London on Monday morning, British media said on Wednesday.
Highly sensitive documents relating to the Iraq War have been stolen after being left unguarded on a train by a lawyer working for the Government, The Times reported.
"Legal papers in the possession of a lawyer from a firm of private sector solicitors working for the Treasury Solicitor's Department were taken from a train on 16 February," said spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office.
"The possible theft is under investigation by the British Transport Police. Action is under way in an attempt to recover the papers," she added.
The lawyer was working for the Treasury Solicitor's Department, which provides legal advice to government ministries.
According to The Times, the highly sensitive documents were stolen after the solicitor from Eversheds could not fit the case into the overhead storage space and instead stowed it in a baggage rack at the end of the carriage.
The lawyer noticed that the case was missing after the train's arrival at King's Cross station and called police.
Baha Mousa died in a British military prison in 2003
It is not yet clear what case the documents, which apparently contain no classified secret, relate to but it is supposed to concern an upcoming investigation in to the death of Iraqi civilian Baha Mousa in British military custody in 2003.
A Leeds-based Eversheds partner was recently appointed to act for the defense ministry in a public inquiry into what the government has admitted as "substantial breaches" of the European Convention of Human Rights in the treatment of Mousa.
The inquiry was first announced last May by then defense secretary Des Browne and is scheduled to hear opening statements on July 13.
The Monday's incident comes latest in a series of embarrassing losses of government documents.
In October 2008, a senior official left classified documents, related to al-Qaeda, on a train. The documents were later recovered and the man was fined for negligence.
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