Iraq: University Professor Disappeared for over 1 Year after Arrest by Baghdad Counter Terrorism Force

On 8 May 2015, Alkarama in cooperation with Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) regarding the case of Riyadh Ibrahim Yacob Al Obaidi, a 54-year-old professor from Al Nisour University College, Baghdad University, who has been missing since his arrest by the Counter Terrorism Force in Baghdad in May 2014.

On 1 May 2014, four men from the Iraqi National Counter Terrorism Force stormed into Al Obaidi's house in the Saidiya district, southwest Baghdad, and abducted him. This force is exceptionally authoritative as it directly reports to the Prime Minister and is hence independent of both the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior. When he asked to be shown an arrest warrant, the officers did not reply but instead insulted him, as reported by both his sons and two of his cousins who witnessed the arrest.

After his disappearance, Al Obaidi's family tried to find him by all means possible, seeking information in several branches of the local police, but to no avail. They were also in regular contact with the forensic laboratory of Baghdad in Medical City, near the Ministry of Health, in order to make sure that he had not been registered as deceased. On 11 May 2014, they filed a complaint with the police station of the Al Saidiya district, which was transferred to the court's al-Karkh branch in Western Baghdad on 5 June 2014. The complaint remained unanswered by the police, which merely advised the family to keep looking at the forensic laboratory.

Five months into the family's inquiry, a police officer told them that he could possibly be detained in one of the Green Zone's secret detention centres, but fearing for his position, he did not give any additional details. The family suspects that Al Obaidi's position as an officer in the former regime of Saddam Hussein regime may be the reason for his arrest and continued disappearance, and fear that be tortured during his secret detention.

Having exhausted all domestic remedies, they appealed to Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly and Alkarama, who, having established this case of enforced disappearance, sent a communication to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance (CED) to call upon the Iraqi authorities to release Al Obaidi immediately, or at the very least to disclose his whereabouts and allow their family to visit him without restriction. Alkarama urges Iraq, as one of the few countries in the region which has ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICCPPD), to live up to its responsibilities and take all necessary measures to set an end to the practice of enforced disappearance.

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