More than 170 malnourished detainees found at an Interior Ministry detention centre in Baghdad appear to have been tortured, the Iraqi prime minister says. The announcement by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Tuesday came two days after US troops surrounded and took control of an Interior Ministry building in the Baghdad neighbourhood where the detainees were found. "I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry prison and they appear to be malnourished. There is also some talk that they were subjected to some kind of torture," al-Jaafari told reporters.
Al-Jaafari said said an investigation had been launched. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official also said on Monday that an investigation will be opened into allegations that ministry officers tortured suspects detained in connection with the country's on going fight against the foreign military presence in the country. Al-Jaafari said the detainees were moved into a better location and "medical care will be given to them".
The Interior Ministry is controlled by the majority Shia. Sunni leaders have accused Shia-dominated security forces of detaining, torturing and killing hundreds of Sunnis simply because of their religious affiliation. The prime minister did not say where the prison was located, but Major General Hussein Kamal, the Interior Ministry's undersecretary for security, said it was in the basement of a building in Baghdad's neighbourhood of Jadriyah. |