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13 Iraqi officers involved in torture ring flee to Iran |
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Tuesday, 20 December 2005 |
 Iran Focus – More than a dozen Iraqi officers involved
in the illegal torture of detainees at secret prisons in Baghdad and
other cities recently fled to neighbouring Iran and do not intend to
return, according to a report in an Iraqi daily.
The daily al-Siadah Iraq wrote on Monday that seven of the officers
were accused of torturing detainees in the secret jails which belonged
to the Interior Ministry.
The report said that upon learning that they could face prosecution
under the next Iraqi government, the officers fled to Iran two days ago.
An official inquiry into the torture of more than 170 Iraqi prisoners
in the secret Jaderiya detention centre in Baghdad, which belonged to
the Interior Ministry, found that prison officials had close ties with
neighbouring Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The inquiry was conducted by Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Nouri
Shaways, who is one of the leaders of Massoud Barzani’s Kurdish
Democratic Party (KDP).
The investigation found that prison officials operated on the direct
orders of Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a senior official in the
Iran-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
More significantly, the inquiry established that a key figure in the
torture operation was an Iranian national with several aliases,
including Abu-Karam Alvandi, according to the Iraqi official who read
Shaways’ report.
Several of the 13 officers that have now fled to Iran had the ranks of
Colonel. One of them would likely have faced charges of terrorism in
Iraq as well, while another officer was accused of peeling the skin off
those arrested in the jails.
The report added that, separately, the chief financial officer in the
Interior Ministry had also recently fled to Iran, taking with him U.S.
$500,000. |
