A MUSLIM soldier who was refused halal meat rations despite offering to buy his own sheep for the pot had his human rights claim dismissed by Appeal Court judges.

Former corporal Annis Mangera took the Ministry of Defence to an employment tribunal alleging racial discrimination. The 31-year-old, who served 10 years in the army before leaving in 2001, said the refusal to give him halal meat meant he went hungry and relied on food parcels from his family.

But his case was dismissed by an employment tribunal and by the Employment Appeals Tribunal, both of which ruled he had taken the wrong legal route pursuing his complaint.

Mr Mangera, of Limbrick, Blackburn, challenged the decisions in London's Appeal Court, but had his case rejected by Lord Justice Buxton.

The judge - sitting with Lords Justice Evans and Tuckey - said he should have first taken his complaint to an internal army panel. He also dismissed claims Mr Mangera's rights to a fair hearing under Article Six of the European Convention on Human Rights had been infringed.

Mr Mangera - now a communications consultant - said the army's failure to provide the ritually-slaughtered meat had left him hungry and undernourished, despite facing the rigours of service life.

While on a six-month tour in the Falklands he "lived off cans of tuna" because he refused to compromise his beliefs and eat normal meat, he said after the ruling.

"In the Falklands I even said that I would go out and buy a sheep myself, slaughter it and then cook it, but they said they didn't want to know," added the six-footer, who weighs nearly 14 stone, and claims that lack of meat deprived him of vital protein, while he only got through his Falklands stint due to food parcels from his parents.

When on field exercise in Britain he was forced to make do with emergency rations of apples and cheese, and had to travel to shops in the nearest town to buy his own halal supplies, he added.

He said the situation highlighted a basic human rights infringement, adding that his legal action was prompted by a wish to improve the lot of other Islamic services personnel.

"The process really needs looking into," said Mr Mangera. "The army should make sure that all people of non-Christian faith get what they need, and if they cannot provide it they shouldn't force people to pay for it.

"The principle at stake was that the army says everything is provided for, everything taken care of, but the reality is that it's not."

Lord Justice Buxton said Mr Mangera's main "difficulty" was that he had never gone through the army's own "redress procedures". His lawyers argued that the army's methods of dealing with such complaints violated his human rights, but Lord Justice Buxton ruled Article Six of the Human Rights Convention had no application to his case.