Iraq: Victim of 2005 Interior Ministry kidnapping - Hassan Alani was only 15, and has since disappeared
Wrongfully kidnapped
On that fateful September day in 2005, Hassan Emad Naser Alani was playing outside in the street, when officers from the Interior Ministry arrived and immediately abducted Hassan. He has since disappeared.
Immediately after the Hassan's arrest, his parents tried, however unsuccessfully, to find out where he was being held and what might happen to him. They sent letters through all the official channels, including the U.S. occupying forces, asking for their intervention. A few days later, they received a phone call from an American officer who told them that he that Hassan was actually being "accidently" held by the Office of the Interior Ministry and that he would soon be released.
Two months later, they received an anonymous phone call - the caller said that their son was being held incommunicado at Al-Jabirya detention center by the same services who had abducted him.
Young Hassan has been detained incommunicado for almost 5 years now.
Pleading Hassan's case
The family informed many human rights organisations, the Red Cross, and various political leaders and dignitaries such as, Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, Iraqi Prime Minister Elio Tanburi and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, of Hassan's disappearance.
In October 2005, they filed a complaint before the Criminal Court of Baghdad, who eventually concluded that Hassan's dossier had been "lost."
The disappearance of Hassan Alani is not an isolated case in Iraq. Since the U.S. military intervention in 2003, many people have been kidnapped by foreign occupying forces and other services in the Iraq. However, few cases of disappearances have been identified to date. Alkarama continues to gather information regarding cases of disappearance in Iraq in order that they are submitted to the UN special procedures.