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VII. Torture and Ill-treatment of Detainees, and Poor Conditions

Human Rights Watch received allegations of torture and ill-treatment at nearly all Asayish detention facilities it visited in April, May and August 2006. The majority of detainees with whom we spoke said that detention facility authorities had tortured or otherwise ill-treated them at some point since their arrest, particularly during the initial weeks when they were being interrogated for the purpose of providing “confessions.” One detainee, `Isam, told Human Rights Watch,

On the first day of detention by the Asayish, I was called in for interrogation around 10 p.m. The investigation took place in a nearby building. It looked new. They told me that I had rockets in my house and that they had witnesses for this. However, there are no weapons in my house and I refused to confess to something that did not exist. They tied my hands and hit me with cables, sticks, and threw punches at me. It was two people. I do not know their names. I lost consciousness and woke up in solitary. I was later given a paper and a pen by the officer and told to write my confession. The officer told me ‘make it up if you need to,’ so I did, and I put my fingerprint on it.¹²⁴

Jawad reported being tortured including by electric shock: “The police and the Asayish came to take us from our homes. They then began torturing us and hitting us. I did not know where I was. They tortured me using electricity, cables, hanging me, and also by hitting me. I was blindfolded. They told me, you have to confess to attacking the police, the national guard, the peshmerga, and the Americans. Under torture, I confessed that I attacked the Americans. I said that I attacked them by firing five Katyushas [rockets].”¹²⁵

In a few other cases, detainees said that the Asayish subjected them to electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body, such as the earlobes. In one case, a detainee said he had suffered sexual abuse. 

Other detainees described being ill-treated as punishment for allegedly infringing regulations at the detention facility in which they were held. Human Rights Watch was not able to independently verify these allegations. While some detainees displayed scars or injuries that they said they had sustained under torture, in most cases several months or years had elapsed since the reported abuse, making verification difficult.

Nevertheless, Human Rights Watch believes that the abuse allegations are credible. The accounts of the torture or ill-treatment alleged, and the methods used, were highly consistent at all the facilities. They were also consistent with the types of allegations received in Kurdistan by the organization in the past. The methods most frequently cited included beatings to the body using a variety of implements such as cables, hosepipes, wooden sticks, or metal rods. Detainees reported that Asayish officials beat them at the time of their arrest or upon arrival at the detention facility, before any interrogation had taken place. They described how Asayish officials kicked or punched them, and kept them blindfolded and handcuffed continuously for several days at a stretch.

The use of “stress positions” was very common. Detainees reported that Asayish officials tied their arms in contorted and painful positions, with one arm raised above the head then bent behind their back and the other arm lowered to the waist then bent upwards behind the back. They then kept the detainees’ two arms tied together by the wrists for prolonged periods.

Many detainees were kept handcuffed and blindfolded for long periods. Jibril stated, “For 10 months following my arrest, I was handcuffed and blindfolded. The first week, my hands were tied behind my back. Every time I would be taken to the bathroom, I would be beaten up.”¹²⁶ Hadi and Kamal described similarly long periods (nine months and seven-and-a-half months, respectively) in which they had been handcuffed and blindfolded.¹²⁷

The majority of detainees with whom Human Rights Watch spoke said that the Asayish held them in solitary confinement as part of the interrogation process, and sometimes as punishment. Such interrogation lasted two to three months in some cases. Officials from the Asayish facilities showed us some of the cells used for solitary confinement that were empty at the time. Typically they were very small, measuring some 2 x 1.5 meters, with no access to natural light or ventilation. Some detainees reported that Asayish officials had beaten them while they were held in solitary confinement, or that they had heard the sounds of others apparently being beaten in nearby cells. They also said that during that period the Asayish gave them meager quantities of food, or none for several days at a stretch. Under international law, long-term or indefinite solitary detention can rise to the level of torture.¹²⁸

In addition to physical abuse, some detainees also alleged that detaining authorities had subjected them to psychological pressures sometimes amounting to torture, including threatening to hold them indefinitely, to execute them, or torture one of their family members. A number of detainees told us that they were threatened with sexual assault during interrogation. Two brothers, Karim and Khalid, who were detained at the same time, reported to Human Rights Watch that “one of the Asayish officials told us that if our parents ever ask about us, they will not tell them that we are here.”¹²⁹

The conditions in which the Asayish kept detainees varied, but were generally poor.¹³⁰ The principal problem at most major facilities was overcrowding, which was sometimes severe. At the Asayish Gishti facility in Arbil, the communal cells measured on average 6 x 5 meters and held in some cases up to 60 detainees. The detainees complained that there was very little room for lying down to sleep, and that in order to accommodate everyone they were obliged to sleep on their side rather than on their back.¹³¹ Human Rights Watch found similar conditions at the main detention facility in Sulaimaniya, which the PUK’s Asayish Sulaimaniya and Asayish Gishti share. The overcrowded cells were also often dark and damp, with little or no natural light, and conditions of hygiene were very poor.

Human Rights Watch spent several hours at a time in these cells while conducting interviews. Many if not all of the detainees appeared to be suffering from lice and other skin ailments. The organization also found a number of detainees who appeared ashen and sickly. They told Human Rights Watch that detaining officials did not permit them to leave their cells at all except to use the toilet, and had denied them a daily exercise period in the facility’s courtyard for prolonged periods lasting several months at a stretch, during which time they had little or no exposure to sunlight.¹³²

Impunity for torture and ill-treatment

Despite claims by officials of the KDP and PUK to the contrary, it was apparent that torture and ill-treatment of detainees did occur, and that the Asayish made minimal effort to punish guards who engaged in such practices.

The general director of the KDP’s Asayish Gishti, Ismat Argushi, told Human Rights Watch, “We give clear-cut instructions to our investigating officers. If torture does take place, then it is certainly without my knowledge.”¹³³ In such cases, an investigative board is supposed to examine the accusations against officials accused of torture. The investigative board is composed of three members, all Asayish personnel: a representative of the Legal Affairs Unit, an administrative officer, and an investigative officer. If the Board substantiates the accusations, it makes a recommendation with regard to appropriate disciplinary action.¹³⁴ A KDP official told Human Rights Watch that no such cases had arisen to date.¹³⁵

The PUK’s Asayish claims to follow similar procedures in such cases. Saifuddin `Ali, general director of the PUK’s Asayish Gishti, told us,

We tell the detainee, “Don’t be afraid, we will not beat you.” There are cases where beatings do happen, but I would say that in 95 percent of cases we don’t beat detainees. The procedure we use is referral to an investigative board. The accused officer is reprimanded, and he may be removed from the Asayish and transferred to the police force. This would be a harsh punishment for him since Asayish members are ambitious. Sometimes the board may recommend demoting the guilty officer to a lower rank. I am the last person to see the file. I look at the recommendations of the board, whose members take into account whether the abuse was premeditated or not. I usually concur with the recommendations.¹³⁶

In one case, Saifuddin `Ali said, a prison official was ordered detained for having beaten one of the inmates: “This happened when, after prayers, the detainee cursed the Kurdish government and prayed for its downfall. The official confessed to me that he had hit the detainee. We formed a three-member investigative board, and the punishment was nine days’ imprisonment. This is a recent case. He is probably still being held now.”¹³⁷

In general, Asayish officials were dismissive of the allegations of torture or ill-treatment made by detainees, deeming them fabrications in many instances. Saifuddin `Ali remarked, “Some detainees claim that they were beaten. I will be honest and say that this does happen in some cases, but they also make up stories, alleging that they were tied with their hands behind their back in painful positions, and other such methods.”¹³⁸ Argushi, the general director of the KDP’s Asayish Gishti, claimed that more “senior” detainees either pressured or instructed recent arrivals to make such allegations.¹³⁹

However, even in cases where an investigative board finds that torture allegations are substantiated, officials remain reluctant to apply the provisions of the CCP and the Penal Code by referring the accused officers to the proper judicial authorities to begin the process of criminal investigation. In the case of the PUK, Saifuddin `Ali told Human Rights Watch that these laws were not applicable since the security forces, both the police and the Asayish, are considered military personnel, and therefore subject to disciplinary punishments in accordance with the Military Penal Code and the Code of Military Procedure. “That is the law we have today and I apply it. It is difficult to change laws overnight. If the law is changed, I shall apply that also,” he said.¹⁴⁰

This is inconsistent with the interpretation of the law applied in a handful of cases in the past where Kurdish officials referred security forces personnel charged with the abuse of detainees to the ordinary criminal courts in Kurdistan and tried them in accordance with the CCP. It is also inconsistent with the interpretation of the law as applied in the rest of Iraq, where Ministry of Interior security forces are also subject to the CCP rather than military law reserved for members of the armed forces.

Human Rights Watch has long urged political leaders and officials of both the KDP and PUK administrations to allow criminal prosecution of law enforcement officials accused of abusing detainees. In practice, criminal prosecutions of this kind in the Kurdistan region have been the exception rather than the rule, and the absence of political will in this regard has encouraged a climate of impunity in which security forces are able to commit abuses without accountability. They are secure in the knowledge that ultimately their superiors will protect them, and, in the instances where administrative penalties are imposed, they are not commensurate with the crimes in question. Despite the Kurdistan authorities’ stated policy banning torture and other ill-treatment, the few measures they have taken have not served as an effective deterrent against abuse.