Iraq: 2 Brothers Disappeared Since Abduction by Government Forces in Al-Mada'in in July 2014

On 14 July 2015, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly submitted an urgent action to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) regarding the case of Yahya and Moussa Al Jabouri, two brothers who disappeared following their abduction by government forces in July 2014.

On 8 July 2014, a group of 10 men armed with machine guns and wearing military trousers and plain t-shirts broke into the Al Jabouri's house in the town of Al-Mada'in, 40km southeast of Baghdad, threatening the whole family. According to witnesses present at the scene, they arrested 30-year-old Ministry of Education officer Yahya and 18-year-old student Moussa, and drove them to an unknown location in pickup trucks without licence plates. From the way they were dressed, the cars they were driving and the weapons they carried, and in view of the several raid they had conducted in the same town, including in the day of the arrest, there is little doubt that these men belonged to government forces.

Following the brothers' disappearance, their family submitted complaints to governmental bodies, including the police station in Al-Mada'in, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Human Rights and the Central Criminal Court, but none of these authorities was able to provide the family with any information or assistance. They also inquired at various military detention centres, including the old Al Muthanna airport, a secret detention centre located in West Baghdad where torture is systematically practiced, the Tasferat prison located near the Al Shaab Stadium in Baghdad's Green Zone, and the Baghdad airport detention facility, again to no avail.

Having exhausted all domestic remedies, the Al Jabouri family contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), whose mandate includes ascertaining the fate of missing persons when steps at the governmental level have failed, but who wasn't able to help either. As a consequence, they appealed to Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly and Alkarama to ask the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance (CED) to raise the case of Yahya and Moussa Al Jabouri with the Iraqi authorities and call upon them to release the brothers immediately or, at the very least, to disclose their whereabouts and allow their family to visit them without restriction.

In view of the facts, Alkarama urges Iraq, as one of the few States in the region to be a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) – binding upon Iraq by virtue of its accession in November 2010 – to live up to its commitments and take all necessary measures to put an end to the widespread and systematic practice of enforced disappearance, in particular by:

• Taking the necessary legal measures to ensure that enforced disappearance is criminalised under Iraqi law and that the penalties provided reflect their grave nature;
• Ensuring that all cases of disappearances are thoroughly, promptly and effectively investigated, and that those responsible are prosecuted;
• Adopting measures to clarify the fate and whereabouts of all victims and ensure that any individual who has suffered as a result of the disappearance is entitled to redress;
• Explicitly prohibiting secret and incommunicado detention and taking the necessary measures to ensure that all secret detention facilities are closed;
• Allowing unexpected independent inspection of all places of detention.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008)