Four men who were previously being held incommunicado in Iraq now have access to their lawyers and relatives. ‘Amer Ahmad Kassar, Mu’ad Muhammad ‘Abed, Nabhan ‘Adel Hamdi and a fourth detainee have been transferred to the Tasfirat Prison in the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
On 20 March 2012, former army officer Nabhan ‘Adel Hamdi was arrested at a relative's plant nursery in Ramadi, 100km west of the capital, Baghdad. On or around 22 March 2012, Mu’ad Muhammad ‘Abed was arrested at the Mawarid Primary School in Fallujah, where he is a teacher. ‘Amer Ahmad Kassar, a vocational trainee, was arrested at his home in Ramadi on 3 April 2012. All three men are in their late 20s or early 30s.
Starting on 24 April, the television station al-Anbar broadcast a program in which the three men together with other detainees were accused of membership of an armed group and of involvement in terrorism-related offences. Interviews containing self-incriminating statements by the detainees were shown in this program. Relatives who saw it told Amnesty International that the detainees appeared to have made these statements under duress.
The three men, and one other man who appeared in the same television program, were initially held by the Anti-Crime Directorate in Ramadi. They reported that they had been tortured, including by being subjected to electric shocks, and coerced into making self-incriminating statements linking them to involvement in terrorism-related offences that were broadcast on the television program.
Thank you for sending appeals. No further action is requested from the UA network. Amnesty International will continue to monitor this case and may take other appropriate action in future.