Testimony of Abbas Z. Abid

STATUTORY DECLARATION I, Abbas Z. Abid (Iraqi Passport No: S379532) of full age and an Iraqi citizen do hereby solemnly and sincerely declare as follows: 1. I am 43 years old. 2. I live in Fallujah, a city in Iraq. 3. I am an Electrical Engineer. Prior to my arrest and detention, I was the Chief Engineer in the Science and Technology Ministry in Baghdad. 4. The purpose of making this statutory declaration is to put on record my torture experience when I was detained in the “Al-Jadiria” prison. 5. This was originally an underground shelter, but was converted into a secret prison. 6. On the evening of 28th of August 2005, about 10pm, a combined force of American forces and National Guards launched a raid on my brother's house. The force consisted of four American Humvees filled with American soldiers and twelve trucks loaded with Iraqi soldiers. More than 15 American and Iraqi soldiers entered the house in a terrifying manner. 7. My nephews came to my house crying for my help as my brother was not at home that night. I stay nearby my brother. 8. I went to my brother's house and welcomed the soldiers and introduced my self as the chief engineer in the Science and Technology Ministry, and told them that my brother is not available for the time being and that I'm ready to answer any questions. They told me that they're searching the house for incriminating evidence. And when not finding anything illegal in the house, the Commander turned to a table in the living room that was used for studying by my nephews. 9. He began to search the table and asked, “Why so many holy books? It's just too many!” I told him that every one in the family has his own holy book. He then examined some papers on the table which were articles downloaded from the internet from various sites - some referred to the violence in Iraq, the future of Iraq and some referred to political figures like Ahmed Al-Jalaby. The Commander asked, “What is this?” and since I didn't know the contents of those papers, I took a quick look at them and told him that they are various articles concerning the situation in Iraq. He said, “I'll take them and show them to my superiors.” He took the articles and the five holy books on the table and left the house. 10. At the front door one of his soldiers whispered something in his ears so he came back and asked me, “What kind of a car is your brother driving?” “Where is it now?” I told him that it is an Opel Omega and it's in our father's garage. The Commander then told me that he wanted to check my father’s house. 11. They searched and found nothing in my father’s house. The soldiers then told me that I was to follow them for further questioning. 12. I was first brought to the Al-Muthanna Brigade Head-Quarters for questioning. They beat me up and demanded to know the names of “terrorists” in my neighbourhood. I told them that I did not know any terrorists. But they did not believe me and continue to beat me. They even electrocuted me and threatened to shoot me. The American took part in the torture and would provide beer to the investigators and guards. I know this because I can hear and understand English. 13. Soon after my detention, the son of my cousin was also detained and he was tortured in order to get a testimony against me. He was released after 18 days of torture and after he had made a false statement against me. 14. I was detained at the Al-Muthana Brigade HQ for four weeks and then transferred to the Al-Jadiria prison. The following detainees were transferred with me: Hameed Kameel Shared Taha Hussein Readh Mustafa Rabah Mahmoud Basim Hammed Khalaf Fauzi Kareem Muhanned Eesaa 15. There, I was again tortured. My torture consisted of the following: a. Hitting with various tools (thick cudgels, cables, metal pipes, metal ribbons); b. Electric shocks in various parts of the body and especially the penis; c. Forcing me to drink allot of water mixed with a diuretic solution, and my penis then tied with a rubber band to prevent me from urinating; d. Hanging me from the wall while hanging weights from my penis for long hours; e. Threaten to sexually assault me; f. Play with my sexual organs; g. Frightening me by shooting a gun around, near and above my head; h. Threaten to sexually abuse my wife and my mother after bringing them to the prison; i. Cut off all food or drinks (except the water I was forced to drink with the diuretic solution) during the investigation period; j. Forcefully extracting my finger nails; k. Hanging me from the wall for long hours until I fainted - the hanging method is by handcuffing my hands to the back and then hang me up from the handcuffed hands so that my shoulder get dislocated; l. Hanging me from the wall and then hitting me with several tools of torture until the hand-cuffs breaks. That happened many times; 16. Other detainees suffered from the following tortures: a. Forcing detainees to have sex with other inmates; b. Their bodies being drilled with a “Black & Decker” drill; c. Cutting pieces of flesh from the body with a grinding machine; d. Burning various parts of the bodies with cigarettes and melted nylon; e. Inserting solid objects in the rectum with wooden sticks, pipes and a vacuum cleaner hose pipe; f. Make to stand for long hours. 17. I was forced to sign a statement without reading or knowing what's in it because they put a bag over my head. This they do to all prisoners. 18. I was then thrown in the corridor with the bag over my head for long hours. I was then moved to a small room ( 2.5m by 2.5m) together with 30 other detainees; then after three days I was moved to another nearby room (7m by 3.5m) and there were about 70 detainees there. The numbers increased afterwards and reached about 115 in that room. 19. They put the bag over my head for over two months and only remove it when I am given food. Some prisoners would have the bag over their head for over five months. I've seen many unbelievable things in that room such as follows: a. There was not enough room for everybody, so the detainees were sitting and sleeping over each other and most of them suffered from burns and frictions and severe wounds, some of them were infected with contagious diseases like TB and scabies. b. Everybody used to urinate in plastic bottles placed near the door. Visits to the toilet are made once every 4 days. c. We were separated in groups of 15 detainees. A detainee is allowed only 1 minute in the WC and then he had to leave to let another one in. On any other occasion during the four days intervals, we have to discharge our human waste in the plastic bags given to us and right in front of everybody. These bags were used to bring food and we kept them for this purpose. These toilet bags were placed near the plastic bottles at the door. Because it is so crowded, the bottles and bags get knocked over and the waste would be spread all over the room. Those bottles and bags were emptied once every four days when we went to the WC. Whenever we went to the WC and on our return, we would be beaten by the guards. d. The guards would offer inducements to convince some of the detainees to report on other detainees about what they know or hear or think and they would sometimes make up stories about their fellow detainees to avoid the torture. e. Detainees who have names like “Omar”, “Baker”, “Marwan” which indicate that they are Sunnis, would receive particular attention from the guards who would yell at them and calling them “son of a bitch”, “bastard” and other humiliating terms. f. No medical care was available at all, and detainees were left to die from their injuries caused by torture. While I was at the prison, the following detainees died, namely: Alaa Khareeb Hassan Mohammed Khadim Husham Abbas Omar Ali Mohammed Khalid Younis Muhseen Ali Farhan Mohamed Waheed Mahmoud Abdullah Haitham Radhi 20. Each group of five detainees was given a 2ltr bottle of water once every 2-3 days; When thirst became unbearable, some of the detainees drunk from the urine bottles in the room. 21. Some of the guards in this prison have mobile phones with tones and songs in the Iranian language and they would talk in a language which I do not understand. 22. Even though the Al-Jadiria prison is under the control of the Minister of Interior, American troops have visited the prison many times and therefore cannot deny the existence of such a prison. Yet in the media, they deny knowing it and deliberately try to give the impression that in this prison, only Iraqis soldiers are torturing fellow Iraqis to distract attention from the tortures in Abu Ghraib. 23. On the 5th of September 2006 I was brought to a court, and the judge ruled that I should be set free for the lack of evidence. 24. I was released on the 2nd of October 2006 with three of my inmates, one of them was Syrian. At the prison's gate my brother was waiting for me in his car and he hired a group of police officers to secure me and to ensure that I reached home safely. I asked my inmates to come with us but they refused. Two cars followed us, a BMW and a Toyota Crown both with black windows. But we were able to evade them. 25. Later, I found out that the inmates who were released with me were killed and buried in (Al-Najaf) cemetry and their parents had to pay huge sums of money to reclaim their bodies from Najaf for re-burial in Baghdad. 26. I stayed about an hour in my house and then moved to another house to stay for a few days. I then left my beloved country. And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1960 Subscribed and solemnly declared by the ) above named Abbas Z. Abid ) at Kuala Lumpur on the day of February ) 2006 at a.m./p.m. ) Before me, Commissioner for Oaths Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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