Iraq: Enforced Disappearance of Taekwondo Federation President, Al Zabidi for Over 8 Years

On 24 September 2014, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly wrote to the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (WGEID) to alert them on the case of Jamal AbdulKareemKazar Al Zabidi, President of the Taekwondo Federation and member of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, disappeared since his arrest by members of the Iraqi military forces on 15 July 2006.

Al Zabidi was arrested whilst attending a meeting of the Olympic Committee at the entertainment cultural centre in Baghdad. Several members of the military forces broke into the centre and arrested around 30 people, including 15 members of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and Taekwondo Union, along with their respective bodyguards. Amongst them were Hassan Bahria, President of the Archery Federation, and Ahmad Alhajeia, head of the Olympic Committee.

When Alzabidi's brother, Akeil - who worked as his personal bodyguard and had also been abducted - was released, five days after his arrest, he reported that he had been detained with his brother in a secret location where he and other abductees were interrogated and subjected to ill-treatment and torture.

Worried about him and his conditions of detention, Al Zabidi's family addressed different Iraqi authorities including the Human Rights Ministry, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defence, the head of Government and human rights organisations such as the National Human Rights Centre. They also filed an official complaint with the police. However, the authorities keep on denying his detention and refuse to provide information on his whereabouts to his family.

In view of the information presented above, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent a communication to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to call upon the Iraqi authorities to release Al Zabidi immediately or, at the very least, to put him under the protection of the law and to inform his family on his fate and whereabouts. As a party to the 2006 Convention on Enforced Disappearances, Iraq has to put an end to this grave practice as well as to investigate the of enforced disappearance documented in the country, in order to comply with its international human rights obligations.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1007 Ext: 810)