About 280 detainees were transferred from a notorious Baghdad jail last fall after the conditions there were inspected by an international team. The elite security force in charge of the jail, who have affiliations with Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki have been accused of abuse. The detainees had no access to families or lawyers and were moved to another jail while still under control of special units. Detainees have released stories of how they were blindfolded and had to lie on the ground with their arms tied behind their back while their arms were being stepped on. Other accounts of abuse that a detainee has released was that he was electrically shocked in the head, neck, and chest, while his hands were tied over his head and his feet were placed in water. He also stated that he was repeatedly beaten and interrogators threatened to go to his house and rape his sister if he didn’t sign a confession. Since this story first came out last spring the conditions of jails have been looked at more closely. And even though Maliki had ordered that prison closed and promised more of a reform in jails, mainly because of the governmental pressures he was put under, abuses of being secluded from their families and lawyers are still being reported by detainees. Officials from both Iraq’s Defense and Interior Ministries have reported soldiers in elite units and Counter-Terrorism members have been arresting masses of people without notifying proper authorities in the security ministries. The positive aspect of this situation is that although this new Iraqi government shares similarities with the old one, there are now political forces in Iraq that are displeased with what is happening and can attempt to do something about it.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-prisons-20110202,0,7023976.story
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