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Forgotten in Iraq: More than four months on hunger strike
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<div class="field_article_img"><div><b>Image:</b></div><img src="https://cage.ngo/wp-content/uploads/image001_15.jpg"></div><div class="field_article_author"><div><b>Written By:</b></div>Arnaud Mafille</div><p><a href="http://www.cageprisoners.com/media/k2/items/cache/4115ce0cb8fc067b296280d3dd68c1e0_XL.jpg" title=""Click to preview image" "><img alt="Forgotten in Iraq: More than four months on hunger strike " src="https://cage.ngo/wp-content/uploads/image001_13.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 200px; height: 301px;" /></a></p><p> </p><p><strong>The </strong><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57581118/shawki-omar-u.s-citizen-held-in-iraq-prison-abused-and-discriminated-against-wife-claims/"><strong>story</strong></a><strong> of Shawki Omar Ahmad, detained without charge and tortured at the hands of American forces for seven years, is a symbol of Iraq’s judicial system in the wake of the US invasion and occupation. The Swiss human rights group Al Karama has now sent a </strong><a href="http://en.alkarama.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1089:iraq-imminent-risk-of-torture-of-shawki-omar-during-frequent-transfers&catid=23:communiqu&Itemid=113"><strong>second urgent appeal</strong></a><strong> to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, on Ahmad’s case. His wife </strong><a href="http://www.demotix.com/news/2000178/wife-and-daughter-lonely-vigil-us-embassy-london#media-2000100"><strong>demonstrates</strong></a><strong> every week outside the US embassy in London in attempt to draw attention to her husband’s fate.</strong></p><p>Now that the US has withdrawn from Iraq and handed over to the Iraqi government all those detained without charge for up to eight years by the US, even the horror of Abu Ghraib is more or less forgotten.</p><p>In December 2011, the US transferred the last of the prisoners to the Iraqi government - <a href="http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/united-states-detention.htm">16 000</a> men and women who had been detained without charge or trial and denied the right to challenge their US custody. They were to be either charged within the domestic Iraqi system of justice or released.</p><p>In August 2012, the Iraqi government showed the character of its justice system. It announced, after the fact, the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/28/world/meast/iraq-executions/index.html">mass execution</a> of 21 unnamed terrorist suspects in a single day, including three women.</p><p>Immediately, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, ChristofHeyns, strongly <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12468&LangID=E">condemned</a> the executions. He recalled <em>“concerns he previously expressed to the Government of Iraq about the imposition of the death penalty, including the need for transparency, stringent respect of due process and fair trial guarantees”</em>. Many human rights organisations denounced what the UN expert called <em>“a smokescreen of flawed legal processes”.</em></p><p>Iraq thus entered the <a href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20725">top three</a> executing countries in the world, just behind China and Iran.</p><p>In April 2013, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights NaviPillay <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13253&LangID=E">condemned</a> rampant use of death penalty in Iraq as “obscene”, adding:</p><p><strong>“</strong><em>It is like processing animals in a slaughterhouse. The criminal justice system in Iraq is still not functioning adequately, with numerous convictions based on confessions obtained under torture and ill-treatment, a weak judiciary and trial proceedings that fall short of international standards. The application of the death penalty in these circumstances is unconscionable, as any miscarriage of justice as a result of capital punishment cannot be undone.”</em></p><p>In 2012 alone, Iraq has already put to death at least <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/death-sentences-and-executions-in-2012">129 people</a>. Nearly <a href="http://www.amnesty.ie/news/nearly-200-executions-approved-iraq">two hundred</a> more executions have been approved by the Iraqi authorities.</p><p>As for the remaining prisoners captured by the Americans, harsh and disproportionate sentences - 15 to 20 years in prison on immigration charges, excluding the time already spent in US custody – have been reported. And the conditions of detention have consistently worsened since the hand-over. The prisoners do not receive adequate medical treatment and do not always have access to running water. This is aggravated by what inmates <a href="http://observers.france24.com/content/20130322-prisoners-beat-abu-ghraib-prison">perceive</a> as a religious discrimination between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.</p><p><strong>The story of Shawki</strong></p><p>Shawki Ahmed Omar is a 52 year old American citizen born in Kuwait to Palestinian-Jordanian parents. In the early 80s, he travelled to the United States to study. After marrying an American citizen with whom he had six children, he held a number of jobs in order to support his family. They were mainly in apartment maintenance. In 1995, the family moved to Jordan so that their children could learn Arabic and discover their father’s culture. Shawki travelled back and forth, making a living in the US for his family in Jordan. After the American invasion of Iraq, he was sent to Iraq by a well-established company run by his brother to seek reconstruction contracts. </p><p> <img alt="http://www.cageprisoners.com/images/CCI10022013_0032%20(1).jpg" height="189" src="https://cage.ngo/wp-content/uploads/image002_1.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" width="183" /> </p><p> </p><p>One night in Ramadan in 2004, American forces broke into the house in which Shawki was staying, beat him and arrested him. For the next two weeks, his family had no idea of his whereabouts.</p><p>Like many non-Iraqi Arabs in Iraq at that time, he was probably suspected by the US of having links with the local armed insurgency.</p><p>Shawki was imprisoned by US forces for nearly eight years without charge in the well-known detention centres of Abu Ghraib, Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca.</p><p>Reports of his treatment, from his family, indicate that much of the abuse he suffered was concentrated around the genital area. He reported that he was repeatedly thrown into a pool of water where he felt he came close to death before he was taken out and that he was also subjected to torture by electricity.</p><p>Pictures of him taken at that time by US authorities were declassified and made available to his family for legal purposes. They clearly show marks of mistreatment.</p><p>Attempts to challenge his arrest and treatment have failed. A <em>habeas corpus</em> petition was filed the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on his behalf by his “closest friend” (his wife and son) in 2005. The case went up to the Supreme Court, which <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-1666.ZS.html">ruled</a> on 12 June 2008 that American courts had no jurisdiction over his case. </p><p>According to the judgment, he was “being held in Iraq by American forces operating pursuant to a UN mandate and at the request of the Iraqi Government.” The right to <em>habeas corpus</em> could not, the court said,“<em>does not require the United States to shelter such fugitives from the criminal justice system of the sovereign with authority to prosecute them"</em>.</p><p>The American forces eventually handed him over to the Iraqi authorities in 2011.</p><p> </p><p> <img alt="http://www.cageprisoners.com/images/240x180-images-stories-ShawkiOMAR_IRQ.jpg" src="https://cage.ngo/wp-content/uploads/image004.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 240px; height: 181px;" /> </p><p> </p><p>Attempts to challenge his arrest and treatment have failed. A <em>habeas corpus</em> petition was filed the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on his behalf by his “closest friend” (his wife and son) in 2005. The case went up to the Supreme Court, which <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-1666.ZS.html">ruled</a> on 12 June 2008 that American courts had no jurisdiction over his case.</p><p>According to the judgment, he was “being held in Iraq by American forces operating pursuant to a UN mandate and at the request of the Iraqi Government.” The right to <em>habeas corpus</em> could not, the court said, “<em>does not require the United States to shelter such fugitives from the criminal justice system of the sovereign with authority to prosecute them"</em>. The American forces eventually handed him over to the Iraqi authorities in 2011.</p><p>The previous year, while in US custody, Shawki was accused by the Iraqi authorities of having entered the country illegally, a charge which he denies. He had completed all the legal formalities required at that time, even informing the American embassy in Syria of his travel plans.</p><p>A hearing was fixed for 15 July 2010 at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, a Baghdad-based Iraqi court. However, he managed from prison to call his family to inform them it would actually be heard on 24 June (he had not been allowed to contact his lawyer to inform him of this change). Alerted by the family, the lawyer went to the court and was assured the trial was still to be held on 15 July.</p><p>But on 10 July, his family received another call from him, telling them that he had in fact been tried on 24 June and sentenced to 15 years. His lawyer was not present and Shawki did not have any paper work to defend himself.</p><p>His sentence was reduced to seven years on appeal (not including the time already served during the American time.) At the end of his sentence, Shawki will have spent 14 years in prison.</p><p>All along Shawki has insisted that his prosecution was a case of mistaken identity. The details in the case were actually those of Shawki Ahmed Sharif, a Palestinian, instead of his own, Shawki Ahmed Omar, American citizen. </p><p>Based on the testimony of two other inmates, which they say was obtained under torture; Shawki was also indicted on terrorism charges. Since then, the two men have been released and in writing recanted their “confession.” However, the Iraqi authorities refuse to acknowledge these retractions.</p><p>After nine years in custody, the Iraqi authorities still have not permitted Shawki’s lawyer to access his file. The family fears that the Iraqi authorities are purposely delaying his terrorism trial until he completes his first sentence on immigration charges. This exposes him to the possibility of another jail term, to be served separately, or even to the death penalty.</p><p> <img alt="" src="https://cage.ngo/wp-content/uploads/image006.jpg" style="width: 240px; height: 180px;" />AlKarama</p><p> </p><p>AlKarama, has reported that torture of prisoners has become common practice in Iraq. Recently, according to<a href="http://en.alkarama.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1047:iraq-new-reports-of-torture-of-shawki-omar-arbitrarily-detained-since-2004&catid=23:communiqu&Itemid=113">AlKarama</a>, Shawki was himself taken for interrogations and severely beaten. He added that one inmate had his fingers broken; another one had his hands and feet burnt and a third had his beard burnt off with a lighter.</p><p>He was also threatened that he would be transferred to a secret location to be subjected to further torture. And a<a href="http://en.alkarama.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1089:iraq-imminent-risk-of-torture-of-shawki-omar-during-frequent-transfers&catid=23:communiqu&Itemid=113">new report</a> from AlKarama reveals that he was indeed transferred. Four months ago, Shawki started a hunger strike demanding an end to torture of inmates, and also that he is released because of the name discrepancy at the heart of the case against him. He has also protested against the unfairness of his detention and trial.</p><p>Today he is back incarcerated in al Karkh prison, detained in overcrowded ship containers.</p>
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Forgotten in Iraq: More than four months on hunger strike
Articles
Forgotten in Iraq: More than four months on hunger strike
Articles