Skip to main content
Mr Yacoub Shamoun ( (يعقوب شمعون, aged 48 years and from Amouda-Qamishli, was arbitrarily arrested on 2 July 1985 by agents of the Syrian State Security. Since this date, Mr Shamoun has disappeared and his family had no news of his fate until 2001 when it was informed he was being held in Sednaya prison. Again enforced disappeared in 2008 following the events in this prison which led to the death of over 20 prisoners, Mr Shamoun only reappeared in 2011.
Mr. Ibrahim Abdallah MOHAMED, a 25-year-old Yemeni national, was arrested on 24 January 2005 at an American and Iraqi identity checkpoint although he entered the territory legally from Jordan. He was brought to an unknown location and was subjected to ill treatment and was deliberately deprived of food for almost a week.

He was then brought to Baghdad to another place of detention before being brought to Baghdad airport.

Mr. Abdallah Hamoud AL-TWIJRI, a 29-year-old Saudi national, was arrested in October 2004 by American soldiers at the Syrian border at Al-Qa'im and immediately brought to a military barracks where he was detained for 15 days. He reports having been tied up for several days upside down with his feet and hands bound and being thrown on the ground to be exposed to the sun all day before being placed back in his cell.
Mr. Azzedine Mohamed Abdeslam BOUJNANE is a 28-year-old Moroccan national. Three weeks after his arrival in Iraq for humanitarian purposes, Mr. BOUJNANE was arrested at the end of February 2004 by American soldiers in Baghdad and brought to Baghdad airport. He also reports that he was treated inhumanely with his hands and feet tied.
Mr. Mohamed Ahmed OUABED is a 36-year-old Algerian national who is a merchant in Mosul where he normally lives. He was arrested on 18 May 2005 at his home by members of the American armed forces.

He was transferred to the Mosul airport where he was detained in secret for 10 days. During that time he reports being tortured not only by the American officers who arrested him but also by member of the Iraqi security services wearing civilian clothing or American uniforms.

Mr. Abdul Hakim Gellani, a British citizen, was arrested 19 November 2005 during a business trip in Saudi Arabia. Detained from December 2005, he was finally released in July 2006 after seven months of secret detention. After obtaining a visa to return to the United Kingdom where his family lives and giving an interview to Al Jazeera, he was again arrested on 8 August 2007 and detained in secret for two months.
Through its office in Yemen Alkarama has in cooperation with local human rights and civil society organizations presented a legal dossier to the Mission of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, which has been appointed to evaluate the human rights situation in Yemen, where the UN Mission is cu
Since the invasion of Iraq by the Coalition Forces led by the United States in March 2003, many nationals of Arab countries have been the victims of arbitrary arrest, savage torture, and secret detention and have been condemned to heavy sentences following unfair trials.

Alkarama sent a communication to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and to the Special Rapporteur on Torture to request that they intervene with the Iraqi authorities in 48 cases and seek that the victims' right to remedy is recognized and that they are compensated for their torture and ill treatment.

Mr. Khaled Al-Twijri, a Saudi Arabian national, was travelling to Jordan in July 2008 when he was arrested and extradited to Saudi Arabia on 25 January 2009. His family was informed neither of his arrest nor of his extradition.

Mr. Khaled Abdulrahman Al-Twijri normally lives in the province of Quassim in Saudi Arabia. Following a trip to Jordan in July 2008, the family of Mr. Al-Twijri had not received news of him for some months. Despite multiple attempts to get the Jordanian government to recognize the arrest or detention, they have never done so.

Mr Fuad Al Khuffash (فؤاد الخفش), aged 36 years and living in Nablus, West Bank, is a human rights defender. He is a well known human rights defender in Palestine that especially focuses on the rights of Palestinians prisoners in Israel.