Hamid
Al Mukhtar
interview
We registered our names at this hotel. We didn’t know at the time
that any Baghdad resident who stayed at a hotel in the capital drew
attention and suspicion. The manager was an intelligence informer.
He took our names down and our university identity cards. In the
room we were shown to, we found out we were sharing with a stranger.
An hour later there was a hard knock on the door. I don’t know how
many intelligence agents were there, fully armed. They searched us,
took the contents of our bags, tied our hands behind our backs,
blindfolded us and took us away. We were taken to the intelligence
headquarters where we were interrogated immediately. They questioned
my friend who had taken us to the hotel first, then the stranger in
the room, who turned out to be a communist who had gone absent
without leave from the army. Any Da’wa or Communist party members
who were caught were executed. The two of them were taken away and
we could hear their screams from where we were chained to the
railings of a staircase.
I was released with a warning not to talk about my arrest and the
two nights I had spent in jail. I was told that if I did, I would be
arrested again and not be released. I was ordered to say I had been
on a trip or something.
BREAK
I had heard that Basheer had been arrested. I should have fled then
but I couldn’t leave my family. I was afraid they would be put in
prison. Later, in prison I saw whole families, whose head of the
household had run away, locked up in tiny cells.
BREAK
We had just finished evening prayers. A friend and my brother Zaid
were with me. There was a knock on the door. When one of my
daughters answered she came back running to say there were a lot of
men at the door. I went barefoot. I had hardly opened the door when
I felt myself lifted up in the air. I was held on either side and
had a large number of guns pointed at my head. They threw me into a
car. They searched the house and came out with my friend and
brother. They took us all to the General Directorate of Security.
BREAK
The torture device was invented by a man from the Khagan tribe in
Najaf. It was even named after him (The Khagani Method). The hands
would be tied behind the back, the prisoner made to squat and a long
piece of wood would be passed under the back of the knees. Two men
would lift up the pole, one on either side so the detainee would
fall, head first. We were stripped naked before being interrogated.
BREAK
Electric cables would be attached to our big toes while we hung
upside down. Meanwhile, the beatings would continue. The prisoner
was made to keep talking, just say anything, apart from screaming in
pain. We had to try to save ourselves by any means possible.
BREAK
I was threatened with everything. My son was beaten in front of me
to lower my morale or break me. The house became a trap. Anyone who
came to the door was arrested by intelligence agents who took over
the house. My family were kept in one room. My brothers could only
watch helplessly from across the street. They couldn’t talk to them
or bring food or anything.
BREAK
We reached the intelligence headquarters and the court was a few
metres away. This was it - the day our fate would be decided, either
death or being allowed to live. We were put in cages inside the
courtroom, facing the judge and two assistants. The attorney general
was seated to our left. It was like a scene from a play. The defence
lawyer, who had been appointed on our behalf by the court, appeared
to be nursing a hangover. The attorney general read out the case.
The intelligence weren’t allowed into the courtroom so I hoped to
get across to the judge that my confession had been taken by force.
I wanted him to know what we had been through. But he wouldn’t allow
me to say anything. He said. “I have to go by the documents before
me. Did you, or did you not say this?” I replied, “I did, but do you
know under what circumstances?”. He replied that this did not
concern him and asked if I had anything to add. When I said I
didn’t, he moved on to the next person. Then he asked the defence to
put our cases forward. It was farcical. Our lawyer was in a bad
state and kept trying to sit down. He said, “It’s true that these
detainees have wronged the party and the revolution but I ask you to
view their cases with leniency”. That was the defence. Just a few
sentences.
BREAK
They would return in a pitiful state. We would feel sorry for them
and try and help them as much as possible. They would be made to sit
on the ground in the dark. I gave one of them a cigarette. One of
the guards saw me and started swearing at me and warning me not to
do it again. I said, “But they need help.” He replied, “It’s not
your business.” They weren’t given any water to drink so they
resorted to drinking their own urine. When their bodies dried up
they would pounce on any newcomer and clamour to drink his urine.
BREAK
They experimented with chemicals on prisoners. They used it on cell
one, but it seeped through to our cell. Some fainted. The hospital
beds were filled with patients. They were ready to combat any
attempted coup. They were prepared for anything especially as it was
the last stages of the war.
END
