Iraq – URGENT APPEAL: Electrocuted and Sexually Abused by Army, Now at High Risk of Being Sentenced on Sole Basis of Confessions under Torture

On 20 May 2015, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture (SRT) regarding the case of Mohammed Abbas Kadhim Al Sudani, a 29-year old married worker and an agent in the intelligence services of the Mosul federal police. Arrested in the middle of the night from his house in Baghdad in November 2014, Al Sudani was secretly detained for almost six months, a time during which he was subjected to severe torture. Currently detained in Taji prison, north of Baghdad, he remains at high risk of torture, and of being sentenced on the sole basis of confessions extracted under torture.

Arrested and disappeared for 6 months

Al Sudani was arrested on 20 November 2014 in his house in the Al Wahda neighbourhood of Baghdad by a squad of 15 members of the of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit, a special security force that has considerably strengthened since its creation by the U.S. army during the occupation, and was responsible for the 2013 massacre of Hawijah where the authorities brutally suppressed the Sunni revolt against the central government. Breaking into Al Sudani's house at 2am, the security officers arrested him – and even mistreated his mother and sisters as well as the children who were asleep – before taking him to an unknown location in their Hammer cars.

Following his disappearance, Al Sudani's family submitted a complaint to the police station of the Al Khalesa neighbourhood in Baghdad, but to no avail. It is only on 4 May 2015 that his mother received a call by the authorities informing her that her son was detained in Taji prison, a detention centre located in a rural district north of Baghdad, was able to visit him the day after.

Al Sudani's relatives suspect that his arrest is due to the fact that he had been looking for three of his brothers who disappeared in June 2014, a practice that has become widespread and systematic, as recently denounced by Alkarama in a submission to the Committee on Enforced Disappearance (CED).

Accounts of secret detention and brutal torture

In the six months that he spent with no contact with the outside world in Baghdad's old Al Muthanna airport, a detention centre where torture is routinely practiced to force the inmates to "confess" their crimes, Al Sudani suffered severe torture – including beatings with iron wire on every parts of his body, electrocution on his genitals and several instances of sexual assault – all acts of torture inflicted on him to make him "confess" to having poisoned his father as well as kidnapped and killed other people. He was also forced to sign documents while blindfolded. This sadly shows the lack of will of the authorities to really leave behind "What happened at Muthanna [...] the horrendous abuse Iraqi leaders say they want to leave behind," as documented by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 2010.

Al Sudani says he was tortured by "Captain Ahmad" and "Captain Osama", who both belong to the 54th Brigade, a unit of the Iraqi Army reportedly under the command of Colonel Firas Al Azerj, which has in the past been commonly referred to by military and police as "Maliki's forces" as its chain of command bypasses the Defence Ministry under which it technically falls and reports directly to the Prime Minister (as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces) through its security office.

Although Al Sudani told his mother, who is now allowed to visit him once a month, that he received some basic medical care, the treatment received is clearly insufficient, as his health condition is still deteriorating. Al Sudani is currently awaiting trial, which will take place before the Iraqi Central Criminal Court in Baghdad. Specifically applying the Anti-terrorism law, the Central Criminal Court has been strongly criticised for failing to meet international standards of due process and for handing down sentences used to silence members of the opposition or other critical voices. Al Sudani is therefore at high risk of not being granted fair trial procedures as his forced confessions are likely to be admitted as material evidence.

Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly's action

In view of this information, Alkarama in cooperation with Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (SRT) calling upon him to urgently intervene with the Iraqi authorities to ask them to guarantee Al Sudani's physical integrity, including by granting him access to an independent doctor, as well as to hospitalise him if needed. The two NGOs also urged the SRT to demand the Iraqi authorities that Al Sudani not be sentenced on the basis of confessions obtained under torture.

An impartial investigation should also be opened into the acts of torture reported by Al Sudani, and its perpetrators should be brought to justice. Finally, Alkarama urges the Iraqi authorities to adopt all the necessary measures to eradicate the practice of torture in the country, such as by adopting a domestic law providing both for a definition of torture in line with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) and for penalties reflecting the gravity of the crime.

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