13 Iraqi officers involved in torture ring flee to Iran
Laptop Battery Tuesday, 20th December 2005
Iran Focus
Baghdad, Dec. 20 - More than a dozen Iraqi officers involved in the illegal torture of detainees at secret prisons in Baghdad and other cities recently fled to neighbouring Iran and do not intend to return, according to a report in an Iraqi daily.
The daily al-Siadah Iraq wrote on Monday that seven of the officers were accused of torturing detainees in the secret jails which belonged to the Interior Ministry.
The report said that upon learning that they could face prosecution under the next Iraqi government, the officers fled to Iran two days ago.
An official inquiry into the torture of more than 170 Iraqi prisoners in the secret Jaderiya detention centre in Baghdad, which belonged to the Interior Ministry, found that prison officials had close ties with neighbouring Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The inquiry was conducted by Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Nouri Shaways, who is one of the leaders of Massoud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP).
The investigation found that prison officials operated on the direct orders of Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a senior official in the Iran-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
More significantly, the inquiry established that a key figure in the torture operation was an Iranian national with several aliases, including Abu-Karam Alvandi, according to the Iraqi official who read Shaways' report.
Several of the 13 officers that have now fled to Iran had the ranks of Colonel. One of them would likely have faced charges of terrorism in Iraq as well, while another officer was accused of peeling the skin off those arrested in the jails.
The report added that, separately, the chief financial officer in the Interior Ministry had also recently fled to Iran, taking with him U.S. $500,000.
The report said that torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by the officials inside the Interior Ministry with ties to Iran had caused anger and protests among the Iraqi public. The women called for the "immediate and unconditional release of all female prisoners". There have been reports of rape of female prisoners inside prisons under the control of the Iraqi Interior Ministry. They also demanded an inquiry into the torture and abuse cases and demanded that those involved in torture be brought to justice.
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