Articles for Iraq

In April 2017, Abdessalam Al Bakkali was sentenced to death after a flawed trial by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) for alleged “terrorist acts”, for which he had already been sentenced by the US occupation forces and served his penalty.

On 2 July 2014, a group of soldiers of the Iraqi Army raided Ali Al Janabi’s house in Latifiya and arrested him. This is the last time his family saw him, as he subsequently disappeared.

On the night of 22 September 2015, Jalal Al Shahmani, owner of a restaurant and activist, was arrested by militiamen and subsequently disappeared. Concerned over his fate, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent his case to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), hoping that the UN experts’ intervention will help shed light on his fate and whereabouts.

On 8 November 2016 Ahmad and Abdullah Al Janabi, two brothers from Al Mahawil, Babil governorate, were arrested at a military checkpoint situated in Al Iskandariya, Babil governorate. Their relatives have no information on their fate and whereabouts since, and they remain disappeared up until today.

On 22 February 2017, Saleh Al Mashhadani, a 22-year-old farmer suffering from hepatitis, disappeared after his arrest by a security forces patrol while working at Salam Al Hashimi’s farms. Al Hashimi is the founder and director of Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly, a NGO that documents cases of enforced disappearances in Iraq. We fear that Al Mashhadani was arrested because he was working on Al Hashimi’s farm, as a form of reprisals against the latter.

In November 2016, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly wrote to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearance (WGEID) regarding the cases of Mazen Al Izzi and Ali Al Dahi who both disappeared after their arrest by the US and Iraqi forces, hoping the UN experts' intervention will help shed light on their fate and whereabouts.

Maan Al Samarrai, a 41-year-old resident of Al Karkh, Baghdad, was detained in Abu Ghraib prison when, on 23 July 2013, hundreds of convicts escaped, while the remaining prisoners were transferred to unknown locations.

On 21 September 2016, the mother of Mohamad Al Jabouri, a 36-year-old construction worker, was able to visit him in Tasferat prison, Baghdad; after more than one year of his disappearance. He told her that during his secret detention, he was heavily tortured by Iraqi security officers and forced to sign a "confession" he was not allowed to read beforehand. This document was the sole source of evidence in his trial before the Central Criminal Court that sentenced him to death on 17 March for alleged "terrorist crimes".

Between July and September 2014, Mohammad Al Janabi, Imad Al Janabi and Hisham Al Masari were in their respective houses in Latifiya and Mahmoudiyah when officers of the 17^th Division of the Iraqi army, a key force in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), broke in and arrested them. The day of their arrest was the last time their relatives could see them, as they remain disappeared up until today.

Between May and June 2015, Ahmad Al Hajjar, Ahmad and Khalid Al Dulaimi disappeared after their arrest at checkpoints controlled by State-supported Hezbollah brigade. Displaced from their hometowns of Mosul and Ramadi, cities then under the Islamic State (IS)'s rule, they were suspected of being its "supporters" and brought to unknown locations.