IRAQ: Iraqi interior minister says claims of prisoner abuse are exaggerated but Muslim clerics call for an international investigation

Record ID: 334739

  • Title: IRAQ: Iraqi interior minister says claims of prisoner abuse are exaggerated but Muslim clerics call for an international investigation
  • Date: 17th November 2005
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SUHAIB SALAH AL-SAMARAEI, BROTHER OF THE SLAIN MEMBER SAYING: "More than seven cars with machine guns on the back, the cars of the ministry of interior, saying they are from the interior intelligence, they came to our house and took my brother, the son of the martyr Salah al-Samaraei who had been executed by the former regime." BANNER READING "MARTYR YASSER SALAH AL-SAMARAEI WHO WAS KILLED BY THE COWARD ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13" MOURNERS PRAYING FILM OF MEN THAT THE ASSOCIATION SAYS HAVE BEEN TORTURED SHOWN ON SCREEN AT NEWS CONFERENCE PHOTOGRAPH OF MAN SAID TO HAVE BEEN TORTURED SHOWN ON SCREEN AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SHEIKH ABDUL SALAM AL-KUBAISI, LEADING SUNNI MUSLIM CLERIC, MEMBER OF THE MUSLIM CLERICS ASSOCIATION SAYING: "At this time the Muslim Clerics Association, which has witnesses and evidence showing the presence of tens of prisoners on which the most severe forms of torture have been practised, is putting a list of demands in front of the world; first it calls for an independent international investigation, which the government should not be any part of, as it bears the larger part of responsibility." CAMERAMEN (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AL-KUBAISI SAYING: "The President and the Prime Minister of the transitional government have been informed about these practices and we got nothing but empty promises from them." NEWS CONFERENCE OF THE MUSLIM CLERICS ASSOCIATION
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVAD0MBH6N0QAP88GEL2PGEV7E0D
  • Story Text: Iraq's interior minister all but dismissed a scandal over a secret prison bunker on Thursday (November 17), saying that only a handful of the some 170 people said to have been held there were abused. Bayan Jabor also denied he had condoned torture. "There is evidence of beating but there were no beheadings. This (the abuse) is unacceptable," Jabor told a packed news conference, his first public appearance since U.S. forces reported discovering a bunker near the Interior Ministry in Baghdad where more than 170 prisoners were being held, many of them malnourished, beaten or even tortured. "The issue has been exaggerated and is inaccurate," he said, adding that he was commenting on the issue only because his aides had put pressure on him to do so. Bayan Jabor said he had agreed to a joint investigation after a request from General George Casey, the senior US commander in Iraq. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said earlier this week that 173 men and teenage boys were discovered at the prison near the Interior Ministry, and said there was evidence that many of them had been tortured. He has ordered an investigation. Jabor, raising his voice in anger as he dismissed several of the allegations being made, said only a handful of people showed any signs of being beaten, and they were all detained for suspected militant activity after arrest warrants were issued. The discovery is likely to fuel sectarian tension between Iraq's Sunni Arab minority and Jaafari's Shi'ite and Kurdish-led government before December 15 parliamentary elections. Most of those found inside the bunker were Sunni Arabs, officials said. Sunnis in Baghdad held a funeral on Thursday(November 17) for a member of the Muslim Clerics Association, saying he had been killed on Sunday (November 20), tortured while in custody, by the militias of the Ministry of Interior. A large crowd gathered at Baghdad Umm Al-Qurra Mosque, headquarters of the Muslim Clerics Association to pray for the dead before burial. Chanting "There is no God but God", the mourners held black banners mourning the slain member of the association Yasser Salah al-Samaraei. Suhaib al-Samaraei, brother of the dead man said that more than seven cars of the Ministry of Interior arrived at their house and his brother was arrested. His body was later found in Baghdad. "More than seven cars with machine guns on the back, the cars of the Ministry of Interior, saying they are from the interior intelligence, they came to our house and took my brother, the son of the martyr Salah al-Samaraei who had been executed by the former regime," al-Samaraei said. Following the funeral, the Muslim Clerics' Association, an influential group of Sunni scholars who hold sway over many Sunnis, held a news conference , demanding an independent international investigation into the allegations that Shi'ite militias linked to Iraq's Interior Ministry tortured and abused prisoners in a secret Baghdad bunker. Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, a leading Sunni Muslim clerics said: "At this time the Muslim Clerics Association, which has witnesses and evidence showing the presence of tens of prisoners on which the most severe forms of torture have been practised, is putting a list of demands in front of the world; first it calls for an independent international investigation, which the government should not be any part of, as it bears the larger part of responsibility." Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has promised a full investigation into what went on at the bunker and appointed one of his deputy prime ministers to lead the probe. Al-Kubaisi said that the Iraqi government had been informed about all these acts but had done nothing about it. "The President and the Prime Minister of the transitional government have been informed about these practices and we got nothing but empty promises from them," al-Kubaisi added. The revelations, more than a year after U.S. troops were found to have humiliated and abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, have provoked international outrage, with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan calling for a thorough investigation.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register