ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi authorities have ignored repeated requests by Human Rights Watch (HRW) to investigate “credible” allegations of torture, including flogging, at a detention facility in the northern city of Mosul, the New York-based watchdog said Thursday.
The damning allegations come after the Iraqi government told western countries it is prepared to try hundreds of foreign ISIS fighters through its justice system in return for billions of dollars, despite serious concerns over corruption and due process.
The watchdog raised the alarm about torture potentially taking place at three facilities under ministry of interior control in Mosul in August 2018. However, researchers found the alleged abuses had continued into the early months of 2019.
The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi has not provided answers, HRW said.
“Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi’s government should demonstrate to the Iraqi people that it is serious about ending torture in Iraq’s detention facilities,” Lama Fakih, HRW deputy Middle East director, said in a statement.
“What will it take for the authorities to take torture allegations seriously?”
Mosul was retaken by Iraqi security forces in Mid-2017, ending three years of brutal Islamic State (ISIS) rule, where public beheading, torture, and intimidation were facts of life.
One detainee who spoke to HRW claims they saw “eight detainees standing naked”.
“Four guards were throwing water at them from a bucket, after which they pushed the detainees to the floor one by one, lifted their legs, and placed their feet through two rope loops attached to a wooden stick to keep the feet in place.”
He said he watched as the guards take turns beating each of the detainees on their feet with plastic piping for about 15 minutes, nonstop.
After the beatings, six of the detainees confessed to affiliations with ISIS, with “each negotiating the length of their membership they would confess,” the detainee said.
Iraqi authorities have repeatedly failed to investigate allegations of torture and unlawful killing.
During the battle to retake Mosul, there were several reports of the Iraqi forces executing suspected ISIS supporters – a war crime under international law.