MADRE Statements

Kidnapping and Torture of Al Tahrir Organizer Alaa Nabil by Iraqi Intelligence

Posted on: Friday, March 25, 2011

Keywords: Iraq, Middle East, Combating Violence Against Women

We just received the following statement from Yanar Mohammed, the director of our partner organization in Iraq, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI). She writes about the kidnapping and torture of Alaa Nabil, a youth activist and organizer of February 25 Group.

After a police squad released him from a one-hour detainment yesterday, he asked for his personal belongings, as they had banners that he needed to use in the next demonstration on Friday in Al Tahrir Square in Baghdad as an organizer of February 25 Group. After 24 hours, four-wheel drive vehicles with tinted glass were heading to his residence in Al Kifah district, filled with men who are dressed in civilian clothes. They kidnapped him from the alleys around his house, forced his head down so he cannot see where he was taken.

In a big hall, which may have been designated for these tasks, they stood him facing a wall, and they started all beating, kicking, and whipping him with hoses and cables on the back and the arms. When they got tired, he was threatened in these exact words: "We will cut your tongues, you and your organizing colleagues, Firas Ali, Suad Shwaili, and Falah Alwan, if you dare to reach Al Tahrir Square. And if you insist to continue this work, we will shoot each one of you and throw you where your bodies cannot be found."

Then Alaa was thrown into a car which took him away and released him in Al Alawi square, close to the Green Zone.

These are the methods adopted by the new security agencies of the "democratic" Iraq. This is how they handle freedom of speech and peaceful demonstrations. It seems that the militias of sectarian cleansing have found a new campaign to recruit and pay for their services, but for the oppression of peaceful demonstrators this time. And all of these measures are part of the gains of the US occupation.

We will not let the criminals and murderers prevail in Iraq.
Their oppression and blows against the rebellion for freedom will be defeated.

Long live Freedom

Yanar Mohammed
President of Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq
Member of February 25 Group تجمع 25 شباط
March 23, 2011

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