PBA DESK : Iraqi authorities are prosecuting children suspected of ties to the Islamic State group in a “deeply flawed” process, using flimsy accusations or confessions obtained through torture,
Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
The rights group’s extensive report was based on interviews with 29 Iraqi children who are current or former detainees in the Kurdish Regional Government, as well as relatives, prison guards, and judicial sources.
Iraq announced it defeated IS in late 2017, but has continued to try men, women, and children, including foreigners, accused of belonging to the group. “The screening, investigation, and prosecution of children as IS suspects by Iraqi and KRG authorities is deeply flawed, often leading to arbitrary detention and unfair trials,” HRW wrote. It found many boys were arrested from camps or checkpoints based on weak evidence.
They were beaten, subject to electric shocks, denied access to relatives or legal representation, and coerced into admitting IS membership even if they had never joined the jihadists, it said.
“They were beating me all over my body with plastic pipes. First they said I should say I was with IS, so I agreed,” said a 14-year-old held by the KRG’s Asayish police.
While IS did widely recruit and indoctrinate children, having some carry out executions, most of those interviewed by HRW said they never fought with the group.
They were tried without lawyers, in hearings that lasted no more than ten minutes and were conducted in Kurdish, a language the Arabic-speaking boys could not understand.
Sentences in the KRG were between six and nine months.
PBA/zizi
