Countless violations: Torture in secret detention centers of mullahs militia in Iraq

Robert el-Fares

Iran, Iraq occupies dozens of militias that carry out countless crimes. The organs of the mullahs’ regime assassinated activist Abdul Quddus Qasim and lawyer Karar Adel in the city of Amarah in Maysan province, southern Iraq, on Wednesday 11 March 2020.

Activists said that armed militias shot Qasim and Adil in the industrial neighborhood of the city and dozens of people from Maysan gathered to condemn the killing of the activists, accusing the parties and their militias of the crime.

Iranian militias practice assassination and forced kidnapping crimes against peaceful demonstrators without any security and governmental deterrent, and the most prominent stations of these crimes are the attack of Muqtada Al-Sadr’s blue militia attacks on the protest squares in the provinces to intimidate the protesters, and to resolve the protests calling for the downfall of the political process.

Activists and detainees in the secret prisons of the Iranian militias reported important information published by the Iraqi Center for Documenting War Crimes that revealed the existence of more than one secret prison affiliated to the Popular Mobilization militia in Iraq distributed in several places in the capital Baghdad and the rest of the provinces.

One of the activists stated that the Spyker camp contains large numbers of detainees for the demonstrations. The activist documented the killing of the young (Omar Muhammad Abdullah) from the people of Tikrit By Haji Laith during the investigation, after he had been arrested earlier by the militias in the city.

The activist showed that Ammar Karim nicknamed Abu Zahra, one of the followers of Haji Laith wearing the uniform of the riot police and went to Tahrir Square, and documented the killing of the child Abbas Sabah Jawad on his hand near Al-Khilani Square.

A former detainee at Latifiya Prison documented that on February 29, 2020, a new group of kidnappers arrived at Latifiya Prison and most of the abductees were young and were subjected to torture and severe beatings.

A special source from a member of the government army stated that “the first day the demonstrations began, the Popular Mobilization Authority gave its affiliates a warning of type (C) in general, and opened new secret headquarters; in addition to secret headquarters in the area (Latifiya) and specifically in Al-Qaqaa facility.

Previously, this headquarters had a group of prisons operated by forces called (Ruh Allah), and a person named (Abu Ali Al-Jibrawi), a member of the Badr Organization and close to Hadi al-Amiri who works as the head of the Security Committee in the Baghdad Provincial Council.

As for the investigation process, it is in the hands of special elements of the Hashd intelligence, particularly those close to the person called Abu Iman Al-Bahli.

Activists of the Center stated that government committees have found detainees and kidnappers – who were missing in previous events in Baghdad and the rest of the provinces by the Popular Mobilization militia – and they are now in secret prisons; among them:

1- A secret prison inside Abu Ghraib prison, west of the capital, Baghdad, containing civilian detainees from Jurf al-Sakhr, al-Tarmiyah and al-Nukhayb.

2- Al-Mahawil Prison, Al-Mustafa and Prison Thermal Stations, and the majority of the detainees were residents of Mosul and were arrested in the city of Rutba and the Al-Razzaza area in Anbar.

3- Arab Jassim Al-Siri prison, and the majority of his detainees are from the kidnappers of the city of Saqlawiyah.

4- Jurf al-Sakhr prison, in which civilians from the Karkh area in Baghdad and the Zuba’a, Karajol and Jamilat, Bouaissi, Al Ghurair, and Bouhamdan areas are located, and these areas are adjacent to the city of Baghdad and witnessed in recent years the Hashd militia’s control of it.

Activists explained that these prisons are run by the militias (Al-Najaba), (Brigades of Sayyid Al-Shuhada), (Iraqi Hezbollah), (Asaib Ahl al-Haq) and (Khurasani Militia).