Articles for Iraq

Iraq: Azzedine BOUJNANE, tortured and imprisoned at Abu Ghraib

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.

06 Jul 2011

Iraq: Mohamed Ouabed, tortured and condemned to a heavy sentence

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.

06 Jul 2011

Iraq: Risk of execution of five foreign nationals sentenced to death

Yousri Al-Tariqi, Tunisian, Badr Ashour Ali, Moroccan, Mohamed Fraj Allah, Libyan, Adel Ali, Libyan, and Nasser Mojib, Saudi Arabian, are detained at Soussa prison in Suleimaniyah (in Iraqi Kurdistan) and had been sentenced to death between 2006 and 2010. They may be executed soon.

1. Mr. Yousri Fakher Mohamed AL-TARIQI, a Tunisian national, was arrested 5 May 2006 in the provice of Salaheddine in northern Iraq by members of the Iraqi security forces.

01 Jul 2011

Iraq: The Yemeni Hasna Ali Yahya Hussein was sentenced to life in prison at a hearing that did not exceed 10 minutes

Based on a single court session that did not last longer than 10 minutes and after more than one year of arbitrary detention and ill treatment the Yemeni prisoner Hasna Ali Yahya Hussein was sentenced by an Iraqi court to lifelong imprisonment.

On 25 May 2011 Alkarama sent a complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, requesting it to intervene with the Iraqi authorities and asking the latter to take the necessary measures for the release of Mrs. Hasna Ali Yahya Hussein, as well as to provide her with appropriate compensation.

23 Jun 2011

Iraq: Moroccan national risks execution after serving seven year sentence

Abdesselam Ahmed Abdesselam Bakkali, a 37 year-old tailor from Tangiers, was arrested in Iraq by American troops in 2003 and condemned to seven years imprisonment. Instead of being released in March 2010 after having served his sentence, Mr Bakkali was seen on Iraq television in November 2010 making public confessions "Al Irakiya TV" and "Al-Arabiya TV" of being involved in terrorist acts.

30 Dec 2010

UN: Iraq ratifies, UN implements Enforced Disappearances Convention

Following the Iraq's ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances, the treaty will finally be implemented on 23 December 2010. Although Alkarama welcomes this step, it insists that enormous efforts must continue to be made, especially in the Arab world.

24 Dec 2010

10 Nov 2010

Iraq: Abu Ghraib Torture Victim Held in Eight Prisons thru Five Years

While the ghosts of Abu Ghraib have yet to be exorcised, and the irresolute closure of the US Detention Centre in Guantanamo Bay is left looming in the distance, more and more torture cases from Iraq involving US forces are seeing the light of day, further lifting the lid on the United States' torture record.

Alkarama recently received the case of Palestinian refugee in Iraq, Mahmoud Al-Khayat, who spent nearly five years in custody during which he was transferred between eight separate detention centres and prisons.

27 Jul 2010

Iraq: Four Women Held in Secret Detention

Alkarama has received reports that Iraqi forces, accompanied by security agents, carried out eight house raids in Al-Adhamiya district, north Baghdad. Eight people were arrested without judicial warrants, including four women, who were taken to a detention center at the Old Muthanna Airport in west Baghdad.

At noon hour on Saturday 5 June 2010, Special Forces of the Iraqi army, accompanied by plainclothes security officers, driving civilian vehicles, carried out house raids on eight civilian homes in Al-Adhamiya. Security forces were looking for explosive devices in a local cemetery.

11 Jun 2010

Iraq: Samir Ammar tortured in Kirkurk following puzzling suicide attempt

Samir Afif Ammar was sitting in a small café in Deir Al-Zor, a city in northeastern Syria on the Euphrates, when a man he had never met named "Abu Omar" sparked a conversation. Abu Omar said he could give him work in an Iraqi oil field and he promised him a good salary. It was January 2009, and Abu Omar would soon thereafter smuggle a then 19 year-old Samir across the border to Iraq. Samir spent two weeks in Iraq, and as recounts, "I can't remember the rest."

17 May 2010