Iraqi security forces accused of raping, torturing women in detention

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http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-iraq-women-detention-abuse-20140206,0,5780976.story

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Iraqi authorities are subjecting detained Iraqi women to torture and other ill treatment, including the threat of sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch reports.

Iraqi security forces accused of raping, torturing women in detention
By Alexandra Zavis
February 6, 2014, 1:36 p.m.

The woman held at an Iraqi death row facility arrived for a meeting with a human rights group last year on crutches, the result, she said, of nine days of beatings and electric shocks.

Seven months later, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, the woman was executed despite a medical report supporting her allegations of torture and lower court rulings dismissing some of the terrorism-related charges against her.

The woman’s account was one of many disturbing cases outlined in a 105-page report on abuses of women and girls in the Iraqi criminal justice system two years after the departure of U.S. forces.

“Iraqi security forces and officials act as if brutally abusing women will make the country safer,” said Joe Stork, the New York-based group’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director, in a statement. “In fact, these women and their relatives have told us that as long as security forces abuse people with impunity, we can only expect security conditions to worsen.”