With all the rage, strikes, and civil disobedience going on in major Iraqi cities, people around the world are wondering what’s happening in Iraq these days. The answer to this question is that the people in Iraq cannot bear any longer to be the victims of this government assigned by the Anglo-American occupation.
During the ten years of violent occupation more than 1.5 million Iraqi have been killed, eight hundred thousand are missing, four million were forced to migrate outside Iraq and two million inside Iraq.
The American occupation imported corrupt politicians, who decided to commit further crimes to end their political opponents through their corrupt judicial system, while getting wealthy and rich.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi young men and women have been locked up in prisons. Most of them are in detention for many years without any charges, accusation, or legal order.
The secret prisons of Maliki’s government are run by militias, others are run secretly by the Americans. In Kurdistan in the north of Iraq, these prisons are run by the Agencies of the two parties led by Barzani and Talabani. Only a few official prisons are administered by the Justice Ministry.
With all the corruption and theft of the members associated with the political parties, new ways of robbing the poor Iraqi citizens emerge. Prison administration members today are millionaires because they charge money from each and every prisoner.
They charge them fees just to let them see their families or lawyers. Families are bankrupt after selling all their belongings just to be able to see and check on their beloved ones in prison.
Corrupt police officers and other forces buy and sell the prisoners as commodities and never help lawyers to end the prisoner’s torture and agony through legal charges against them. Women and children are tortured and raped just because their husbands or fathers or brothers are resisting the occupation and its quisling government.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and all other Civil Rights Organizations have warned Maliki’s government not to politicize the Judiciary system in Iraq.
The following letter from Lawyer Badie Aref gives a good example of the injustice and bloodshed the innocent young people in Iraq are facing:
New Scandal in the case of Carrying out the Bombing and the Foreign and Finance Ministries in Iraq:
Lawyer BadiaAref
Middle East Newspaper published two days ago on its front page more news about one Mr. Rafie al-Issawi, who admitted that he was the one behind the bombing of the Foreign and Finance ministries. The newspaper quoted a well-informed source in the Ministry of Interior.
Lawyer BadieAref answers. (Read also: How many more innocent people will be sentenced to death for the bombing of the Foreign and Finance Ministries in Iraq?)
Two years ago, a spokesperson of the Iraqi Security Forces, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, announced to the Iraqi people on satellite television channels that his forces had succeeded to arrest Wissam Ali Kadhim, a Diyala Province resident, and he showed him on television as the accused of the Finance and Foreign ministries bombing under the guidance of Younis al-Ahmad, leader of the Baath Party who is residing in Syria.
Death sentences were issued against these citizens and against a group who was accused of complicity in the bombings of Foreign and Finance ministries. I Kept a CD of all these events as a document and I submitted it to the Federal Court of Cassation.
The executions of this innocent Iraqi citizen and his group were carried out and an arrest warrant was issued against Mr. Yunis al-Ahmad, as the responsible “gang leader” for these bombings.
Months later, the same spokesperson appeared again on TV and announced very cheerfully to the Iraqi public that eleven al-Qaeda members were captured for their responsibility in the bombing of the Foreign and Finance Ministries.
It seems he had forgotten his earlier statement that had already caused the death of innocent young men for the same crime of the bombing of these two ministries. Again, the court sentenced the second group to death, and the death penalties were ratified by the Federal Court of Cassation and also by the Republic’s Presidency. Those innocent citizens were waiting for their execution. Their families hired me as a lawyer to defend them despite the ratifications of the Federal Court of Cassation and the Presidency on these unjust rulings for the same crime that spokesman had attributed to Mr. Yunis al-Ahmad. The presidency of the prosecution thankfully stopped the execution of these young innocent men hours before their execution was scheduled.
A few months later, Rahim al-Rawi appeared on satellite TV and confessed publicly that he was responsible for the bombing of the Foreign and Finance ministries. He stated that he belonged to the Islamic Army. He made no reference to any of the two groups that were previously sentenced to death for the same crime. I visited Munaf al-Rawi, and he told me that he and his group are solely responsible for carrying out this operation. His written confession was signed by his thumb and ratified by the prison administration. He was also sentenced to death and his group too, for the same act.
I wonder what is happening in this country!! And for how long the shedding of innocent people’s blood will continue???
We are now facing four groups, not related to one another, who are all sentenced to death for the same crime. Please explain, dear officials, what is happening in this country, and how long this situation will go on? I call upon the public opinion and all legal organizations, humanitarian and human rights organizations (of course, the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry is excluded from this matter) and both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to intervene in this matter before shedding more new bloods of the citizens of this plagued country.
Lawyer: BadieArefIzzat – Baghdad 01 01 2013
The people of Iraq are desperate and totally fed up.
They decided to go out to fight and get killed:
- for their rights,
- for their detained young men and women, so that they may be freed,
- for their 5.3 million abused children who are deprived of their basic child rights,
- for their beautiful country that has been destroyed by the US led occupation,
- for their stolen oil wealth by the US occupation and their corrupt followers represented by Maliki and his government.
Additional editing: Dirk Adriaensens.
Dr.Souad Al-Azzawi is an Academic from Iraq and member of the Executive Committee of The BRussells Tribunal.
