IRAQ: Iraq's vice president visits women's prison in northern Baghdad

Iraq's Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi visits women's prison in the northern district of al-Kadhimiya in an effort to highlight the shortcomings of the justice system in Iraq. Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president Tareq al-Hashimi visited women's' prison in al-Kadhimiya district of northern Baghdad on Saturday (October 6) in one of many visits he made to different prisons in Iraq in an effort to highlight the woeful state of detainees. In rare video pictures from inside an Iraqi women's' prison were released by the office of Sunni Arab Vice President. The video showed that significant numbers of women being held in prison, some with their children. Most of women inmates said that they were held in the prison without committing any crime. Some were held for long years without being formally charged. A woman prisoner who was sentenced to death said that she received her death sentence without even questioning her. "They arrested him (her husband). I was looking for him when they brought me here. They said that they will let me go when he came. I send many complains and then I heard that he was released. I was sentenced to death and the death penalty has been approved. Every time I complain, they told me (that they will listen to me) only when he came," she said. The women's prison in Kadhmiya, a Shiite area in Baghdad, is one of three major prisons in Iraq that house several hundred female inmates. They've been convicted of crimes such as prostitution, murder and terrorism. Some are being held pending trial. Another inmate Suad Aziz Abbass who was a headmistress of a secondary school in al-Amiriya district of western Baghdad said that she was looking for her son who was missed for more than a year when she had been brought to the prison. "I have been brought to visit my son but instead they brought me to the women's' prison in Kadhimiya. I spent a year and one month asking about the destiny of my son, I asked the human rights (organisation) and I look for him in many places but I could not find him. In December 5, 2006, after a year and a month, I have received a report from the forensic department, saying that my son had been killed. He had been exposed to torture, burning and this is the report of the forensic department (showing paper)." Cases of lengthy detention without charge are an embarrassment to a government that says it promotes human rights and whose members, exiled or persecuted under Saddam Hussein's rule, criticized abuses carried out by his security forces. "We have seen many halls inside the prison, heavy sentences, hanging sentences and juvenile. The most important thing that has drawn our attention is that there were many inmates in prison who have not been investigated. One of them has been held in prison for four years without being investigated," said Amal al-Qadhi, a member in the Iraqi Integrity commission. Government figures show 2,661 detainees have been sent to court since a security crackdown in the capital began in February. The figures also show that more than four thousand have been released from Iraqi prisons in the same period, though it was not clear if those releases were all in Baghdad.

ITN Source | October 7, 2007

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