COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION CENTRE FACTS ABOUT IRAQ Human Rights: Stories of Abuse

There are hundreds of stories about individuals who have been tortured by the Iraqi regime. Together they build a picture of brutality and contempt for human rights. Just five people’s stories:

Woman beheaded in front of her children

In December 2000 a woman known as ''Um Haydar'' was beheaded in the street, in front of her children. She was 25 and married with three children. The security authorities were looking for her husband, reportedly because of his involvement in Islamist armed activities against the state. He had already fled the country when men belonging to Feda'iyye Saddam came to the house in al-Karrada district and found his wife, children and his mother. They took Um Haydar into the street where two men held her by the arms while a third pulled her head from behind and beheaded her in view of her neighbours. They took away Um Haydar’s children and her mother-in-law; they have not been seen again. Her body and head were carried away in a plastic bag.

Exile sent video of a relative’s rape

In June 2000 Najib al-Salihi, a former army general who fled Iraq in 1995 and joined the Iraqi opposition, was sent a videotape showing the rape of a female relative. Shortly afterwards he reportedly received a telephone call from the Iraqi intelligence service, asking him whether he had received the ''gift'' and informing him that his relative was in their custody.

Deserter’s ear amputated

Ahmad Dakhel Kadhim, aged 30, from al-Samawa in al-Muthanna governorate in southern Iraq, was arrested on 1 September 1994. He had been serving in the army and deserted following the invasion of Kuwait. He was taken to al-Samawa prison where he was detained for three days before being blindfolded and taken to an unknown location. He later found himself in al-Samawa hospital. He was tied to a bed and given an anaesthetic. When he recovered consciousness his right ear had been cut off as a punishment. He was transferred from prison to prison until 23 December 1994 when he managed to escape and flee the country. Ahmad Dakhel Kadhim has been sentenced to death in absentia.

Traffic warden tortured to death

Salah Mahdi, a 35-year-old traffic warden in al-Mansur district in Baghdad, married with three children, was arrested together

with scores of people following the attempted assassination of 'Uday Saddam Hussain, the eldest son of the President, in December 1996. He was accused of neglect because he did not notice the car the assailants used. He was held in the Special Security building and was severely tortured. He died, reportedly as a result of torture, in June 1997. His family was told that he had died but the body was never returned to them for burial despite their repeated requests and to date his burial place reportedly remains unknown to the family.

Student confesses after watching parents and wife tortured

Al-Shaikh Nazzar Kadhim al-Bahadli, a 29-year-old theology student from Saddam City, was arrested in June 1999 and tortured for long periods in the building of Saddam Security Directorate. His wife, father and mother were reportedly brought to the building and tortured in front of him to force him to confess to responsibility for disturbances in Saddam City. He was said to have confessed in order to spare his parents and his wife further torture. They were released following his confession but he was sentenced to death and executed at the beginning of 2001.

These stories are detailed in the Amnesty International Report, IRAQ: Systematic Torture of Political Prisoners, published in August 2001