Articles for Iraq

In November 2016, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly wrote to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearance (WGEID) regarding the cases of Mazen Al Izzi and Ali Al Dahi who both disappeared after their arrest by the US and Iraqi forces, hoping the UN experts' intervention will help shed light on their fate and whereabouts.

Maan Al Samarrai, a 41-year-old resident of Al Karkh, Baghdad, was detained in Abu Ghraib prison when, on 23 July 2013, hundreds of convicts escaped, while the remaining prisoners were transferred to unknown locations.

On 21 September 2016, the mother of Mohamad Al Jabouri, a 36-year-old construction worker, was able to visit him in Tasferat prison, Baghdad; after more than one year of his disappearance. He told her that during his secret detention, he was heavily tortured by Iraqi security officers and forced to sign a "confession" he was not allowed to read beforehand. This document was the sole source of evidence in his trial before the Central Criminal Court that sentenced him to death on 17 March for alleged "terrorist crimes".

Between July and September 2014, Mohammad Al Janabi, Imad Al Janabi and Hisham Al Masari were in their respective houses in Latifiya and Mahmoudiyah when officers of the 17^th Division of the Iraqi army, a key force in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), broke in and arrested them. The day of their arrest was the last time their relatives could see them, as they remain disappeared up until today.

Between May and June 2015, Ahmad Al Hajjar, Ahmad and Khalid Al Dulaimi disappeared after their arrest at checkpoints controlled by State-supported Hezbollah brigade. Displaced from their hometowns of Mosul and Ramadi, cities then under the Islamic State (IS)'s rule, they were suspected of being its "supporters" and brought to unknown locations.

On 13 October 2014 at 9 am, a group of several officers of the Iraqi security forces broke in the house of Mohamad Janabi in Latifiya, Babil governorate, and arrested him together with his son Najim his uncle Ahmad Janabi and the latter’s son Mehdi. Brought away to an unknown location, their relatives remain unaware of their fate and whereabouts almost two years after their abduction.

On 8 June 2014, Dawood Al Issawi was in his home with his family when a patrol of police officers and militia men broke in, arrested him and took him to an unknown location. This was the last time his family saw him, as he remains unforcedly disappeared until today.

On 19 August 2015, Waee Al Jabouri, lawyer and head of a human rights NGO, left his house in the morning and never came back. He disappeared after his arrest at a nearby checkpoint of the State sponsored militia Liwa Al Sadr. Concerned over his case, Alkarama and the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights sent his case to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) hoping that this mechanism for the protection for human rights will help locate him.

On the night of 1 July 2014, Hussein Azzawi was in his house in Latifiya, a town south of Baghdad, when 10 military officers broke in and arrested him, before taking him away in a pickup truck. Until today, his family was not able to obtain any information on his fate and whereabouts.

On 12 May 2016, Salih Al Dulaimi, professor at the Electrical Engineering Department of the College of Engineering, University of Anbar, was sentenced to death on the basis of Iraq Antiterrorism Law by the Iraqi Central Criminal Court, the judge relying on statements Al Dulaimi made under heavy torture and alleged information provided by the US intelligence.