Iraqi Refugee Describes Torture, Imprisonment of Husband Who Returned to Iraq to Free Jailed Son
Rabiha al Qassab, a British Iraqi woman who lives in London, describes the harrowing story of her husband, Ramze Shihab Ahmed. Having fled in 1998 after being accused of trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Ramze returned to Iraq last year to get his son out of prison. He, too, was arrested and was tortured. Like 30,000 other Iraqis, he and his son are being held without charge. Guest:
Rabiha al Qassab, Iraqi refugee living in Britain. Her husband, Ramze Shihab Ahmed, was jailed and tortured in Iraq after returning to free his imprisoned son.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re on the road in London, England. Amnesty International here is condemning Iraq for holding an estimated
30,000 prisoners without trial. In a new report called "New Order, Same Abuses," Amnesty documents how Iraqi prisoners are being arbitrarily detained and tortured to obtain forced confessions. Today, we hear the story of one those prisoners.
Ramze Shihab Ahmed is a sixty-eight-year-old former general in the Iraqi army who fled in 1998 after being accused of trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein. His wife, Rabiha al Qassab also fled Iraq after her brother was executed by Hussein. They both got political asylum in Britain and settled in North London, where they lived a quiet life together. Then, last year, everything changed.
In September 2009, Ramze heard his son Omar had been arrested in Mosul by Iraqi security forces. Ramze decided to travel to Iraq several weeks later to try to help. Within a month, he, too, had been arrested. For months, his wife, Rabiha, didn’t know where he was. He was first held in a secret prison at the old Muthana Airport in Baghdad before being relocated to another prison. During his imprisonment, Ramze says he was tortured. He says plastic bags were placed on his head, he was electrocuted and sodomized. He’s now in a wheelchair. Well, it’s nearly ten months after his arrest, more than a year after his son’s arrest. He is still being held without charge or trial.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/20/iraqi_refugee_describes_torture_imprisonment_of(Audio, video, transcript at link)
So, they lured this lady's husband back to Iraq to try to help their son who had been picked up. Then, they detained, tortured and raped the father, too, and told him his freedom would cost him $50,000.
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March 1st, 2006 5:25 PM
US Seeks Funds to Build Prisons in Iraq
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department is winding down its $20 billion reconstruction program in Iraq and the only new rebuilding money in its latest budget request is for prisons, officials said on Tuesday.
State Department Iraq coordinator James Jeffrey told reporters he was asking Congress for $100 million for prisons but no other big building projects were in the pipeline for the department's 2006 supplemental and 2007 budget requests for Iraq, which total just over $4 billion.
``This is the one bit of construction we will be doing --
$100 million for additional bed capacity for the Iraqi legal system,'' he said.
Eventually, the Iraqis would take more detainees now in U.S. custody and more space was needed, Jeffrey said, adding that money would also be set aside to increase the number of prosecutors and ``corrections advisers.''
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/us-seeks-funds-to-build-prisons-in-iraq(Emphasis mine, ef)
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