Iraq: UN Calls Shawki Ahmad Omar’s Detention “arbitrary” and Calls for his Release

On 23 April 2014, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued an Opinion considering Shawki Ahmad Omar's the detention to be arbitrary and says the Iraqi government has a duty to release him. Wrongly accused, under the mistaken identity of a Palestinian national, of "illegal entry" to the country, Shawki Omar has now spent over ten years behind bars in Iraq.

Shawki Omar, a 52 year-old Jordanian national with American citizenship, had left the United States (US) for Iraq after its invasion, hoping to find a job to help rebuild the country's infrastructures. He and his pregnant wife were abducted in October 2004 by American soldiers, before going missing for two weeks. During this period, he was subjected to severe torture, including electric shocks and simulations of drowning. He was detained in several detention facilities – Camp Cropper (today known as Al Karkh Prison), Abu Ghraib Prison and Camp Bucca – before being handed over to the Iraqi authorities in July 2011.

Whilst still being held in US-controlled facilities, Omar was sentenced in June 2010 to 15 years of imprisonment by the Central Criminal Court for "illegal entry to Iraq" following an utterly unfair trial during which confessions obtained under torture were admitted as evidence. In 2011, his sentence was reduced to seven years in prison by the Court of Cassation.

The UN Working Group concluded that Omar's case revealed "serious procedural violations", including lack of access to legal assistance, and concluded that the sentence he was given after his unfair trial was "harsh and disproportionate". The violations of Omar's right to a fair trial were considered of such gravity by the Working Group that they gave his "deprivation of liberty" an arbitrary character. The Group consequently requested Iraq to "immediately release" Shawki Omar and grant him his right to compensation.

Reacting to the UN's call, Omar's lawyer, Curtis Doebbler said that "he was arbitrarily detained from the start. He should never have been detained and tortured by the US military; he should never have been subjected to torture nor to an unfair trial in Iraq. The UN Working Group is yet another voice saying he should be immediately released and compensated. I hope that both the Iraq authorities and US government will listen this time."

"My husband has been arbitrarily detained for many years and now, on top of that, we don't even know where he is. He has been cut off from all communications with his family for over a year, and we know nothing about him," explains Omar's wife. "We are extremely concerned because we believe that he is very ill and not receiving the medical care he needs, and all our attempts to find out anything about him have been to no avail."

Alkarama welcomes the adoption of the Opinion and hopes that the WGAD's action will encourage the Iraqi authorities to release Omar, and to put a definitive end to the barbaric practices of enforced disappearance, torture and arbitrary detention.

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