LONDON, Sep 23, 2009 (AFP) - An Iraqi man who died in British custody in 2003 was happy when US and British forces invaded Iraq and "hated" Saddam Hussein, his father said Wednesday.

Addressing a public inquiry into the controversial death of Baha Mousa, he told how he saw British soldiers stealing money from a safe in a way which breached "English dignity and honour."

The 26-year-old hotel receptionist died in the southern Iraqi city of Basra after a "struggle" with two soldiers, the inquiry has heard. One British soldier has been court martialled and jailed for a year over the abuse.

Daoud Mousa said the British arrival in Basra at the start of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq was widely welcomed.

"We welcomed the troops, we gave them flowers. They were walking about everywhere in the markets, quite free of any concern," said Mousa, who was a policeman in Basra for 24 years before being forced to retire in 1991.

Asked what his son thought about the defeat of the country's dictator, he said: "He hated Saddam because he was hearing that Saddam removed me from my employment."

"He was happy when the British troops came in," he added.

Moussa's son had been working at the city's Ibn Al Haitham hotel for less than a month when he was arrested.

The father described how he arrived at the hotel on September 14, 2003, and found three or four British soldiers breaking into a safe and taking out bundles of money, stuffing them into their pockets and inside their shirts.

"I thought that it was a violation of English dignity and honour, and the honour of English troops," he said.

Seven British troops faced a court martial over the Mousa case in 2007 but all were cleared except Corporal Donald Payne, who was jailed for inhumane treatment, becoming the first British armed forces member to admit a war crime.

Britain's Ministry of Defence has agreed to pay nearly three million pounds (3.5 million euros, 4.8 million dollars) in compensation to Mousa and the families of nine other Iraqis mistreated by British troops.

mt/ar/boc

Copyright AFP 2009.