HRW Report on Iraq Reveals the Failings of Iraq’s Central Criminal Court

In four previous articles entitled ‘The Neocolonial Fabrication of Iraq – A Country Without Justice’, ‘Post-Saddam Iraq: the Prevalence of Injustice and Inequity’, ‘Obliterating Humanity, US / UK-occupation of Iraq is Worse than Saddam Hussein’s Tyranny’ and ‘Wicked Larceny of Natural Resources, Deliberate Diffusion of Chaos: the Only US Target in Iraq’, I republished the preliminary parts (Introduction, Table of Contents, Summary, Recommendations, Methodology, Background and Legal Framework) and main chapters (Delays in Hearings, Lack of Evidence and Reliance on Secret Informants, and Access to and Quality of Defense) of a Report recently released by the leading humanitarian NGO Human Rights Watch (The Quality of Justice - Failings of Iraq’s Central Criminal Court - December 14, 2008 - http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/12/14/quality-justice-0), which makes state of the dramatic situation that prevails in the judiciary system of the neocolonial fabrication of post-war Iraq. The Report sheds light on an impossible situation ensued from the calamitous mismanagement of the country by the biased US administration.

This 42-page Report documents how thousands of defendants in Iraq wait months or even years before facing a judge and hearing charges against them in the Central Criminal Court (CCCI), and cannot pursue a meaningful defense or challenge evidence against them. A US-Iraq security agreement that takes effect at year's end will transfer detainees held by the US-led Multinational Force to Iraqi jurisdiction, adding to the court's cases.

With the present article, I complete the republication of the enlightening HRW Report.

IX. Coerced Testimony and Abuse in Detention
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/76891/section/10

The reliance on confessions in the CCCI cases raises serious concerns about the fairness of those proceedings. Torture and other forms of abuse in Iraqi detention facilities, frequently to elicit confessions in early stages of detention, are well-documented.[117] The reliance on confessions in the court's proceedings, coupled with the absence of physical or other corroborating evidence, raises the possibility of serious miscarriages of justice. In at least 10 investigative hearings and two trials that Human Rights Watch observed, defendants renounced confessions submitted as evidence. In most of those cases, the defendants said they had been physically abused or threatened by interrogators. The large majority of those cases involved detainees held by Iraqi authorities. In the cases of MNF detainees disputing confessions while being prosecuted in the CCCI, one claimed to have been punched and kicked at the time of initial detention and subsequently pressured to sign a confession.

Judges at the investigative and trial phase displayed some willingness to countenance allegations of abuse, and dismiss cases apparently tainted with coerced confessions.[118] In the trial of the defendant facing charges relating to an attack on Iraqi security forces in Salahuddin province (mentioned in the preceding chapter in the context of ineffectual defense counsel), the defendant told the court that while in the custody of police in Tikrit he was tortured repeatedly until he put his fingerprint on the text of a confession. The defendant showed the judges scars on his back, abdomen and legs that he said resulted from torture during interrogation sessions over a period of approximately 40 days. The presiding judge noted that the defendant's confession was likely coerced, and the panel of judges acquitted him.[119]

Most of the approximately three dozen detainees Human Rights Watch spoke with recounted that Iraq's military or security forces arrested them in the course of large-scale round-ups. They said abuse occurred in the early stages of pretrial detention. A detainee awaiting his investigative hearing at the court's Rusafa branch told Human Rights Watch he had been detained at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad's Doura district by soldiers from a predominantly Shia unit who recognized his family name as Sunni. The detainee claimed that prior to his transfer to a Ministry of Justice holding facility, detaining forces had blindfolded and beaten him, subjected him to electric shocks, and forced to him drink large quantities of water while not allowing him to urinate.[120]

Another detainee at the same branch of the court told Human Rights Watch he had been held by an Iraqi national guard unit south of Baghdad in August 2007, accused of bomb attacks on Iraqi security forces, and kept for four months prior to his transfer to Baghdad's transfer prison (Tasfirat). During that period, he said, his jailers beat him with sticks and their fists, and suspended him from a rod by his hands and feet before beating him on the torso and limbs.[121]

A third detainee awaiting an investigative hearing told Human Rights Watch he had been detained by an Iraqi army unit in July 2006 and taken to an army base in southern Baghdad where he was held for six months. He displayed scars consistent with accounts of beatings he claimed to have suffered during that period. He said his jailers had suspended him by his bound hands and administered electric shocks to his ears, hands, and genitals. He claimed they coerced him into signing a confession during that period.[122]

A fourth detainee told Human Rights Watch he had been detained during an Iraqi army sweep in Yousufiyya south of Baghdad in January 2007 and held at an army base for three months before being brought to Baghdad's transfer prison. During that time his jailers applied electric shocks to his ears and genitals; he displayed scars consistent with the type of abuse he described.[123]

Notes

[117] See UNAMI Human Rights Report, 1 July-31 December 2007; and Human Rights Watch, The New Iraq? Torture and Ill-treatment of Detainees in Iraqi Custody, vol. 17, no. 1(E), January 2005, http://hrw.org/reports/2005/iraq0105/.

[118] It was less clear that judicial authorities were likely to initiate investigations into suspected cases of torture, or that such proceedings would be pursued wholeheartedly. See UNAMI Human Rights Report, 1 July-31 December 2007, para. 65.

[119] Human Rights Watch observation of trial hearing, CCCI-Rusafa, May 11, 2008.b

[120] Human Rights Watch interview with unnamed detainee, CCCI-Rusafa, May 14, 2008.

[121] Human Rights Watch interview with unnamed detainee, CCCI-Rusafa, May 14, 2008.

[122] Human Rights Watch interview with unnamed detainee, CCCI-Rusafa, May 14, 2008.

[123] Human Rights Watch interview with unnamed detainee, CCCI-Rusafa, May 14, 2008.

X. Acknowledgments
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/76891/section/11

Joseph Logan, researcher in the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, and Michael Wahid Hanna, a consultant to Human Rights Watch and Program Officer with the Century Foundation, conducted the field research for this report in Baghdad in May 2008. Joseph Logan is the principal author of the report and Michael Wahid Hanna drafted sections of it.

Human Rights Watch thanks judges and other officials of Iraq's Central Criminal Court and Higher Judicial Council, and officials of the ministries of Justice and Human Rights for their cooperation and assistance at all stages of the research for this report. We extend our thanks to the detainees and lawyers who gave interviews to Human Rights Watch during the field research. Human Rights Watch appreciates the cooperation and assistance of UNAMI and the US and UK embassies in Baghdad before and during the research. Hania Mufti, head of UNAMI's human rights office at the time of the research, provided extensive assistance before and throughout the research for the report, as well as helpful comments on a draft. We also appreciate the cooperation of personnel of the Multinational Force-Iraq in gathering information for parts of this report. Leila Fadel, bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers in Baghdad, and Tina Susman, bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times in Baghdad, also provided valuable assistance during the research for this report.

Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, and Ian Gorvin, senior program officer in the Program Office, edited the report. James Ross, legal and policy director, provided legal review. Clarisa Bencomo, Middle East and North Africa researcher for the Children's Rights Division, also reviewed the report. Amr Khairy helped with translation to Arabic. Nadia Barhoum, associate for the Middle East and North Africa Division, prepared this report for publication. Grace Choi, director of publications, and Fitzroy Hepkins, production manager, provided additional production assistance.

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Picture: the only place in Iraq where one can find Justice is the tomb.