AN IRAQI farm labourer faced seven British paratroopers across a courtroom yesterday as he described how the “angry and nervous” soldiers had allegedly knocked him unconscious and murdered his cousin.

Athar Finnijan Saddam told a court martial that they were struck by rifle butts, helmets, fists and feet in an unprovoked attack in the village of al- Ferkah, close to the Iranian border in southern Iraq.

Mr Saddam was driving his pick-up truck as a taxi on May 11, 2003 — 11 days after the end of the war — when seven soldiers of the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment who had been involved in pursuing another vehicle boxed him in.

Both he and his front-seat passenger, his “tribal cousin” Nadhem Abdullah, 18, got out of the vehicle, intending to produce registration documents.

“They were angry,” he said, through an interpreter at the court martial in Colchester. “Nobody spoke to us. One came up at first and immediately started beating me.”

Mr Saddam, a marsh Arab who said that he was unable to identify any of the soldiers, went on: “I never fought back — I thought I should respect them.”

Mr Saddam is one of 17 Iraqi witnesses at the first court martial involving charges of murder against British soldiers since the start of Operation Telic, the codename for Britain’s campaign in Iraq.

The farmhand, a married man with children, said that he had stopped his pick-up truck when he saw two cars pass by — a white car followed by a military vehicle that appeared to be involved in a chase. Two military vehicles subsequently stopped in front and behind him in what the prosecution believe might have been a case of mistaken identity.

Mr Saddam, who has a moustache and goatee beard, gave evidence after swearing on the Koran. He said that, like him, his cousin was beaten in an unprovoked assault by the soldiers. “They started beating us while we were standing. Then we fell on the ground. After that I didn’t know about him and he didn’t know about me.

“They hit me on my forearm, my elbow, my head, my back, all over my body. At first they were beating him on his back and his tummy. After that, he fell. I fell. I don’t know what happened next.”

Asked by Martin Heslop, QC, for the prosecution, if he had done anything to provoke the attack, he added: “No, I have done nothing. None of us had any weapons and there were no weapons in the car. I lost consciousness after I was beaten up, and I never saw him [his cousin] alive again.”

The defendants, Corporal Scott Evans, 32, Private Billy Nerney, 24, Private Samuel May, 25, Private Morne Vosloo, 26, and three former privates, Daniel Harding, 25, Robert DiGregorio, 24, and Scott Jackson, 26, have all pleaded not guilty to murder and violent disorder.

Mr Saddam said that he heard a shot fired during the beating. He subsequently learnt that this had killed a dog. He attended the British Military Hospital in Basra for treatment for his injuries. Upon return to the village he found that his Toyota truck had allegedly been damaged by the soldiers after the beating.

He identified the “dish-dasha” — a loose-fitting robe — that he had been wearing when it was exhibited in court. It was torn and bloodied and stained with alleged boot marks, which the court has been told were consistent with footwear worn by most of the soldiers.

Under cross-examination by Rex Tedd, QC, counsel for Corporal Evans, Mr Saddam denied seeking compensation by pretending that the damage to his vehicle had been caused by the soldiers. When it was suggested to him that his injuries were no worse than a sportsman might incur on the football or rugby field, he said: “My injuries were not caused by sport or playing football — they beat me and I fell to the ground.”

The court has been told that Mr Abdullah died the next day from a severe head injury, and that his blood was found in a screw recess on the butt of Private May’s SA80 rifle.

The case continues.

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