During and following these events hundreds of followers of Ayatollah al-Sadr were arrested and were subjected to torture. Dozens were later summarily tried and executed. Among them were Al-Shaikh Salim Jassem Sadkhan al-'Abboudi and al-Shaikh 'Ala' Hussain al-Shuwaili who were reportedly arrested in around June 1999 and were sentenced to death in May 2000 and executed a month later. Both were from Saddam City and their family homes were demolished by the security forces. Others executed during the same period after they had been tortured included al-Sayyid Sa'ad Mohammad 'Ali al-Nouri, Qassim Ghazi al-Shuwaili and al-Sayyid 'Amr al-Mussawi. Al-Shaikh Nazzar Kadhim al-Bahadli, a 29-year-old theology student from Saddam City, was arrested in June 1999 and was tortured for long periods in the building of Saddam Security Directorate. His wife, father and mother were reportedly brought to the building in August 1999 and were tortured in front of him to force him to confess to being one of those responsible for the disturbances in Saddam City. He was said to have confessed in order to spare his parents and his wife any further torture. They were released following his confession but he was sentenced to death later and was executed at the beginning of 2001.
Al-Shaikh Mohammad 'Aziz Rahif al-'Aqqabi, a 27-year-old man married with children, was arrested in the early hours of 14 May 2000 in his house in Saddam City. He was accused of involvement in the murder of the head of Saddam Security Directorate which took place during the disturbances. He was held in Saddam Security Directorate during which he was tortured. In the first 15 days he was held in solitary confinement blindfolded and his hands tied behind his back. The blindfold was removed only during prayers. He stated to Amnesty International:
''...on the second day of my arrival I was taken to a room for interrogation. The blindfold was removed. The interrogator asked me a lot of questions about people I knew but I said I did not know them. Then he asked the guard to take me to al-Gannara
room. Once inside the room the blindfold was removed again and the room was empty. I then had my hands tied with a telephone cable behind my back. I was made to stand on a barrel and then the guards encircled each of my upper arms with a tight belt. The belts had a knob. The knobs were tied to a rope and onto a horizontal rod. The guards then pushed the barrel I was standing on and I was left suspended. One guard then held me from the waist and started to pull me down. This was very painful. The interrogator asked the guard to tie my penis and one of my toes to an electric wire and onto an electric motor. He would then turn the electricity on and would increase it. The interrogator was also beating me with a stick on my back...''.
Women too have been tortured, ill-treated and in some cases extrajudicially executed in Iraq. Su'ad Jihad Shams al-Din, a 61-year-old medical doctor, was arrested at her clinic in Baghdad on 29 June 1999 on suspicion that she had contacts with Shi'a Islamist groups. She was detained without charge or trial and was released on 25 July 1999. She was initially held in Baghdad Security Directorate and then was transferred to al-Ambar Security Directorate (also in Baghdad) on 5 July. Su'ad Jihad Shams al-Din was tortured frequently during interrogation by security men. Methods of torture included mostly beatings on the sole (falaqa) with a cable.
Some women have been raped in custody. They were detained and tortured because they were relatives of well known Iraqi opposition activists living abroad. The security authorities use this method to put pressure on Iraqi nationals abroad to cease their activities. For example, on 7 June 2000 Najib al-Salihi, a former army general who fled Iraq in 1995 and joined the Iraqi opposition, was sent a videotape showing the rape of a female relative. Shortly afterwards he reportedly received a telephone call from the Iraqi intelligence service, asking him whether he had received the ''gift'' and informing him that his relative was in their custody.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engMDE140082001!Open
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