SOLDIERS charged with in-humane treatment of Iraqi civilians in a British military detention centre in southern Iraq forced their prisoners to perform in a “choir” of groans, moans and cries, a court martial was told yesterday.

Corporal Donald Payne, who has admitted committing a war crime, used to ask total strangers who visited the detention facility in Basra whether they would like to hear the choir, and then proceeded to kick and punch the Iraqis until they moaned and screamed.

Julian Bevan, QC, prosecuting the seven soldiers — five formerly of The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment and two from the Intelligence Corps — said that the ill-treatment of the men, one of whom, Baha Musa, died of his injuries, appeared to be accepted practice.

Mr Musa, 26, who had been arrested with eight other Iraqis after a raid on a hotel in Basra, was beaten more than most of the others.

At one point Corporal Payne “grabbed Mr Musa’s head and banged it against the wall about three times”, then kicked him twice in the ribs. Mr Musa, who had been beaten “from pillar to post” and used as a punchbag, had pleaded: “Mercy, I am dying.”

Mr Bevan said that Mr Musa stopped breathing and that attempts to revive him failed.

Afterwards, Corporal Payne told soldiers: “If anything comes of this, say he banged his own head against the wall.”

Mr Musa had died of a combination of asphyxial restraint, after being forced face down and hooded on the floor, and multiple injuries.

Mr Bevan told the hearing in Bulford Camp, Wiltshire: “It is the sheer openness of the treatment of these men, in front of complete strangers, that is utterly astonishing — no effort being made to hush it up or conceal it behind closed doors.”

He added: “It is as if he [Corporal Payne] did what he liked with impunity, with no fear of repercussion.”

One witness, Senior Aircraftman Scott Hughes, saw Corporal Payne repeatedly kick a man the soldiers called Grandad. Mr Bevan said that Senior Aircaftman Hughes saw Colonel Payne try to gouge the man’s eyes out deliver karate chops to his neck.

He said: “Towards the end, Corporal Payne said to those present, ‘Do you want to hear the choir?’ He then proceeded to orchestrate the choir, to kick each of them in the lower back where the kidneys are located, and at each blow the prisoner made a noise, crying out in pain. This was the choir.”

The seven defendants in the court martial are: Colonel Jorge Mendonca, the former commanding officer of The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, who denies negligence for failing to ensure that the detainees were not ill-treated; Corporal Payne, who admits inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians, but denies manslaughter and perverting the course of justice; Lance Corporal Wayne Crowcroft and Kingsman Darren Fallon, who deny treating civilians inhumanely; Sergeant Kelvin Stacey, who denies assaulting a civilian, causing actual bodily harm, and an alternative charge of assault; and Major Michael Peebles and Warrant Officer Mark Lester, of the Intelligence Corps, who deny negligence.

The court was told that the man known as Grandad, Kifah Taha Mutairi, suffered renal failure after he was kicked in the kidney area. He survived after spending two months in hospital, but has since died from an unrelated incident. A roof fell on his head.

Mr Bevan said: “Corporal Payne focused his attention on Grandad and repeatedly told him to get his ‘f***ing hands up’ and in doing so kicked him in the sides. Private Graham [a witness from The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment] saw him kick this man in excess of 30 times, generally in the torso and whilst kicking him swore at him.”

A video of Corporal Payne shouting at the detainees was shown to the court martial. Mr Justice McKinnon, the High Court judge hearing the case, refused a request to make the video public.

The trial continues today.

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