Suspend Death Penalty against 17 Civilians Including a Female in Iraq
Human Rights Monitor urges the international community to intervene and appeal to the Iraqi authority's to release 17 civilians arrested by the Iraqi police for their connection with the former vice president Tarek Alhameshy.
Iraqi security forces stormed the home of Tarek Alhashemy the well-known Iraqi politician and arrested his relatives and workers from the home when they found he was absent. The order was issued in 2011 by the Prime Minister at the time Nour Almalky.
During the four year detention they were tortured and treated inhumanely and held in poor conditions. According to family the detainees were taken to secret torture centres before they were permitted to see lawyers or family. One detainee was raped in an effort to intimidate the others forcing them to confess to fabricated charges.
They were severely tortured and forced to make false confessions, on the basis of which they were sentenced to death on terrorist charges for politically motivated reasons on August 5th 2014. Many violations took place in the case and the defendants lawyers were also arrested in an effort to intimidate any lawyers defending them. Such actions are a cause for concern regarding the legal situation within Iraq.
One woman was among the detainees issued the death penalty one Rasha Nemr Gaafar Alhusseiny 39 personal secretary and PR officer, Sohaib Akram Salman Algaheeshy 34, and nine guards were also arrested namely, Mohamed Hussein Ebeid Alganany, Ahmed Showqy Abdul Kareem Mohamed Alsharbaty. Qesh Qader Mohamed Ali Abass Albeyaty, Marawan Mokhebar Ahmed Dedan Aldleemy, Yaser Saady Hassoun Saady Hasso Alzebedy, Ossama Hameed Hamoud Alhalbosy,Hekmat Naser Hamad Dahy Alebedy, Natek Abdallah Ibrahim Alekedy and Mahmoud Aldelemy.
Six other friends and relatives of the political activist were also arrested including Ali GalilAliAlgenaby 41, Essam Gaber Etha Fayad Almashedany 34, Raad Hamoud Saloum Hussein Aldleemy 34, Ahmed Showky Saoud Alkebesy 31, Amgad Hamed 27, and Arshed Mohedy Aldeleemy 24.
For its part Human Rights Monitor calls for the speedy and immediate intervention to help save the lives of the defendants served the death penalty and calls on the Iraqi government to respect the rule of law. It also calls for a fair trial and supervision of victims to guarantee no other torture takes place with accountability to those who tortured the detainees during their arbitrary detention.
