A prominent human rights watchdog put forward on Thursday new accusations against Iraqi officers, saying that they continued to commit torture in a detention facility in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul mere months after the watchdog had issued a report on abuse in three Mosul's detention facilities
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2019) A prominent human rights watchdog put forward on Thursday new accusations against Iraqi officers, saying that they continued to commit torture in a detention facility in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul mere months after the watchdog had issued a report on abuse in three Mosul's detention facilities.
HRW disclosed alleged torture in three facilities under the Iraqi Interior Ministry in or near Mosul in a report released in August. The report was based on statements by two former detainees and the father of a man who had died during interrogation.
"Iraqi officers have committed torture at a detention facility in Mosul at least through early 2019, months after Human Rights Watch reported on the abuses and shared information about those responsible," HRW said in a statement.
A former prisoner of Mosul's Faisaliya detention facility told HRW, on conditions of anonymity, that he had witnessed torture there in early 2019. According to him, guards were beating eight detainees with plastic piping, while they were lying on the floor, with their feet fixed. Two of these detainees were then subject to another kind of torture: guards were beating them with plastic piping and pouring water over their mouths, while the detainees' faces were covered with towels.
The tortures aimed to make the detainees confess to being linked to the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia). All those subject to tortures made the confessions.
Guards have also stamped on some of the detainees with their boots.
"Prime Minister [Adil] Abdul-Mahdi's government should demonstrate to the Iraqi people that it is serious about ending torture in Iraq's detention facilities ... Strong actions are needed," Lama Fakih, the deputy middle East director at HRW, said, as quoted on the watchdog's website.
Before publishing its August report, HRW provided detailed information, including the Names of four Interior Ministry's officers involved in torture, to the person in charge of human rights at the Iraqi prime minister's Advisory Commission. HRW also contacted Iraqi authorities in February to learn whether the government had launched investigation following the report. However, HRW has not received a reply to any of its letters.
