A former soldier described yesterday watching two comrades kick and punch a handcuffed Iraqi prisoner minutes before he died at a British detention centre in Basra.

At the public inquiry into the death of Baha Musa in September 2003, Garry Reader, a member of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, which was responsible for arresting and holding the Iraqi civilian, named the two men he believed caused his death.

He identified Corporal Donald Payne, who was convicted at his court martial of the war crime of inhumane treatment of Iraqi prisoners, and Private Aaron Cooper, who was not charged in relation to the death.

The former Private Reader, who left the Army in 2007, told the public inquiry that he had entered the building where Mr Musa was being held and saw him near the entrance.

“He looked dazed and didn’t seem to me to be aware of anything,” he said. Mr Musa, 26, a hotel receptionist, was not wearing a sandbag hood but his hands were tied with plastic handcuffs. “I don’t believe he was a threat. I do not even believe he was trying to escape, I just think he was injured and wanted help. Payne and Cooper were shouting, ‘Get on the f****** floor’,” Mr Reader recalled.

“One of them — I cannot remember which one — was trying to get the sandbag on his head. Baha Musa was struggling and he seemed to be trying to break free. I saw Payne and Cooper kicking and hitting Baha Musa.”

He said he later found Mr Musa sitting with his head slumped. He shook him but got no response and started giving him artificial resuscitation before a medic arrived and Mr Musa was carried away on a stretcher.

Explaining why he was telling the whole story now, Mr Reader said: “At the court martial I was still a serving soldier with a family. I wanted to protect my family.”

Mr Musa suffered 93 injuries. Ex-Corporal Payne was sentenced to 12 months in prison and dismissed from the Army in disgrace.

The inquiry continues.

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