VZCZCXRO2874
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #1483/01 1220739
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 020739Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1001
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC//NSC// PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 001483 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2017 
TAGS: PHUM KDEM PGOV KJUS MOPS IZ
SUBJECT: MINISTRY OF HUMAN RIGHTS EMPLOYEE REPORTS TORTURE, 
EXTORTION 
 
REF: BAGHDAD 1378 
 
Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Charles O. Blaha, reasons 1.4 
 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C/NF) SUMMARY:  On April 22, Ministry of Human Rights 
(MoHR) employee Amar Sabrih (strictly protect) told PolOff 
Iraqi police tortured him and nine other detainees at a 
Baghdad police station near the Khadra area of Baghdad 
(Mahalla 639) during March 21 to 25.  According to Sabrih, 
they concealed these actions from Coalition Forces that 
visited the facility.  Sabrih said the torture included 
beatings, shoulder dislocation, and electrical shocks.  He 
said that the police freed him after his relatives paid them 
1000 USD to secure his release.  Sabrih reported that Human 
Rights Minister Wijdan Salim spoke to him about his ordeal on 
April 19 and suggested that he file a report to the MoHR 
prisons inspections division; however, Sabrih, who is Sunni, 
said he declined to do so because he is afraid of the prisons 
division, allegedly dominated by Shiites with sectarian 
agendas. END SUMMARY. 
 
------------------------------------ 
MOHR EMPLOYEE'S DESCRIBES HIS ARREST 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (C/NF) During an April 22 meeting, Amar Sabrih (strictly 
protect), who is a clerk in the legal directorate of MoHR, 
relayed to PolOff the circumstances surrounding his arrest, 
detention, torture, and release by Iraqi police from March 21 
through March 25.  He said that the police arrested him the 
morning of March 21 at his home in Baghdad's Khadra 
neighborhood in the process of rounding up a number of other 
people in the neighborhood, in a seemingly random manner. 
Sabrih stated that the police forcibly entered his home, 
after refusing to give time to let his female family members 
put on their hijabs (head coverings).  Sabrih reported that 
the first police officer who spoke to him inside his home 
behaved properly; he only asked Sabrih to show his 
identification card and state his place of employment.  Five 
other police officers, however, then entered his home and 
against the protests of the officer that had been 
interviewing him, dragged him out of the house while beating 
him with their rifle butts.  Sabrih said an American soldier 
approached the police and told them to stop beating him. 
 
¶3. (C/NF) Sabrih noted that the Iraqi forces took him and two 
other detainees to a police camp between the Khadra and 
Amariya neighborhoods on the back of a pick-up truck.  He 
said that one of the Iraqi police sitting with the detainees 
on the back of the truck then commented to him that they 
would wait until the Americans were out of sight.  Sabrih 
said that when they reached the police camp, he shouted for 
help when he heard the voices of American soldiers -- since 
he was blindfolded and handcuffed.  An American soldier 
approached and Sabrih told the soldier's translator, "If you 
leave, they will kill me".  He said that the American forces 
then registered and photographed him and other detainees, and 
during the course of his four-day detention, came to the camp 
every morning to make sure no detainees were missing.  Sabrih 
commented that he believes this measure prevents deaths. 
 
------------------------ 
TORTURE DURING DETENTION 
------------------------ 
 
¶4. (C/NF) Sabrih reported that he was then taken, 
blind-folded and handcuffed into a room, and he heard the 
Americans say that there were ten detainees in total.  After 
some time, he heard the sound of humvees leaving the camp, 
and then the Iraqi police took him and the other detainees 
out of the room and had them stand in a single-file line in a 
hall.  Sabrih said that they were forced to stand for 
approximately eight hours and were punched and kicked 
periodically.  He reported that he endured approximately 15 
beatings during this time and was not allowed to go to the 
toilet.  Sabrih noted hearing the sound of other men dropping 
as they fainted.  Sabrih reported that after the 
approximately eight-hour waiting period, the police started 
taking the men one-by-one to speak with an interrogator.  He 
said that during this time, for some reason, he was the only 
man who was not interrogated.  When the Americans returned, 
the police returned them to their holding room. 
 
¶5. (C/NF) According to Sabrih, during the late evening of his 
second day of detention, the police brought him and the other 
detainees out the holding room, lined them up, and began to 
beat and shock them with electricity.  Sabrih said that the 
police threw water on them and he heard the crackle of the 
electricity as they were shocked.  He said he heard someone 
 
BAGHDAD 00001483  002 OF 003 
 
 
say to avoid leaving any visible scars, especially on the 
face.  Sabrih reported that the beating and shocking -- which 
left finger-width marks on his back and shoulders -- were 
merely preparation for the night shift interrogator.  Sabrih 
said that he heard the screams of the nine other men over an 
approximately five hour period as they were taken to another 
room for interrogation, and again, he was the only man that 
was not interrogated.  Sabrih assessed he was spared 
initially due to his affiliation with MoHR.  He said at the 
end of the waiting period, he broke his silence and demanded 
to know what his charge was; however, he was then hit on the 
head so hard that he fainted and was dragged back into the 
holding room. 
 
¶6. (C/NF) Sabrih said once he regained consciousness in the 
holding cell, he made a space in his blindfold by rubbing his 
head against the wall, and was then able to see the room.  He 
said that he was surprised to see that his uncle was among 
the other detainees and noted that he could see that the 
other men were bruised under their torn shirts.  Sabrih said 
that he then spoke up and instructed the men how to make a 
space in their blindfold as he had done, and they did the 
same.  He then asked the other men what had happened to them 
when they were interrogated.  Sabrih's uncle said that he was 
tortured with electrical shocks to his genitals.  One of the 
other men told him that during the interrogation, his leg was 
stretched over two blocks and his knee was broken, and then 
because he could not walk, he was dragged out of the 
interrogation room, which was called the "intelligence 
officer's room" on a blanket. 
 
¶7. (C/NF) Sabrih said that on his third days of detention, he 
was interrogated and tortured.  He said that during 
interrogation, the police lifted his arms -- that had been 
handcuffed together behind him -- and then pulled them up 
towards the front of him.  Sabrih said that having dislocated 
his shoulders, the police then un-handcuffed him and then 
kicked him to reposition his arms.  Sabrih noted that the 
police used this technique on all of the men and it would 
cause them to faint.  He said that his arms were temporarily 
paralyzed afterwards for five to six hours. 
 
------------------------ 
ALLEGATIONS OF EXTORTION 
------------------------ 
 
¶8. (C/NF) Sabrih reported that on the fourth day, the 
interrogator told him he was innocent and he would be 
transferred to Khadimiya (the Ministry of Interior 2nd 
National Police division headquarters detention center) and 
released.  He said that during his release, he was not 
transferred and then released from Khadimiya, but was let go 
directly from the camp.  Sabrih said that subsequently, he 
learned that his family had paid 1000 USD in bribes to the 
police, and he assessed this is why he was not transferred to 
Khadimiya.  He added that his uncle was also released after 
the family paid a 1000 USD bribe.  Sabrih noted that of the 
ten men at the police station holding room he knew of only 
three that were released -- himself, his uncle, and a third 
man, whose father had leveraged some personal connections 
with the police. 
 
¶9. (C/NF) Sabrih alleged that a cousin had been released 
after being detained for three months at Khadimiya, because 
his family paid 5000 USD in bribes in December 2006.  He 
commented that the prices for bribes are different and higher 
prices are charged at Khadimiya.  Sabrih reported that 
someone called "Rafid" who is a Shiite friend from Baghdad's 
Khadimiya district, where the detention center is located, 
brokered his cousin's release through friends in the 
neighborhood who work at the detention center.  Sabrih said 
that his cousin has since left Iraq to seek medical care.  He 
added that that many people who remain detained are those who 
cannot pay to be released. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
REPORTED CORRUPTION/SECTARIANISM IN MOHR 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (C/NF) Sabrih said that when he was detained, his family 
notified MoHR about his detention.  He said that an official 
at the ministry called the Interior Ministry, which then 
incorrectly informed the official that Sabrih was detained at 
Khadimiya.  Sabrih asserted that some of the ministry staff 
knew his actual whereabouts, but apparently did not pass the 
information for unknown reasons.  He said that after he 
returned to work at the ministry, only close friends inquired 
about what had happened to him. 
 
¶11. (C/NF) Sabrih reported that on April 19, Minister of 
 
BAGHDAD 00001483  003 OF 003 
 
 
Human Rights Wijdan Salim approached him in his office and 
asked him about the prison situation.  He said he told her 
what had happened to him and she asked him to make a report 
to the ministry's prisons division, which is under the 
Directorate General of Humanitarian Affairs headed by Ahmed 
Muhammed Attar.  Sabrih said that he has not filed a report, 
because he fears the entire prison division, which is 
predominantly Shiite -- but, in his words, has "a few token 
Kurds, Christians, and Sunnis doing administrative tasks". 
He said he was particularly skeptical of Attar's deputy, Saad 
Sultan.  Sabrih asserted that Sultan was marginalizing 
Minister Wijdan by bypassing her through his actions. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The Deputy Commissioner of Iraq's Commission on 
Public Integrity (CPI) Mousa Faraj on January 25 sent a 
memorandum to the MoHR Inspector General's Office alleging 
that Saad Sultan was obstructing the ministry's prisons 
inspection mission and had leaked information provided by a 
detainee.  Faraj asked that MoHR conduct an investigation of 
the complaint and inform CPI of the results. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶13. (C/NF) Sabrih's accounts of torture are consistent with 
the reports of other individuals who have reported torture by 
Iraqi Forces that conceal their actions from Coalition Forces 
(reftel).  The allegations of sectarianism in MoHR are 
difficult to substantiate; however Post will continue to 
monitor the situation and seek evidence regarding the 
allegations. END COMMENT. 
SPECKHARD