amigocabal

7 January 2003: (ICH) Sadiq Zoman Abrahim, 55 years old, was detained this
past August in Kirkuk by US Soldiers during a home raid which produced no
weapons. He was taken to the police office in Kirkuk, questioned by the
Americans there, then transferred to Kirkuk Airport Detention Center.

It was from this detention center he was transferred to Tikrit Airport
Detention Center. While in this detention center Mr. Abrahim managed to find
a man who was about to be released, and have him pass on to his family
information about where he was.

It was from this place that the Americans transferred him, comatose, to the
hospital in Tikrit.

Acting on this information the family searched the hospital, but was unable
to find him. While there, the hospital administration informed them they had
someone in a coma by the name of Abrahim Sadiq Zoman, who was dropped off
two days prior by the Americans.

According to the administrative staff at the hospital, the only information
provided by the Americans was the incorrect name and a medical report which
said Mr. Abrahim had suffered a heart attack. They provided no information
as to where he had been picked up, no address and no other personal
information.

It is documented by both the hospital and Iraqi Red Crescent in Tikrit (who
took the photos of Mr. Abrahim), that the Americans dropped the comatose man
off with the aforementioned information. Before his family had found him,
the Iraqi Red Crescent had posted photos of Mr. Abrahim on buses leaving
Tikrit in hopes of someone recognizing him, as noone in the city knew who he
was.

In the photos taken by the Red Crescent, Mr. Abrahim appears with long hair
and an unshaven, scruffy face. The staff at the hospital shaved him, and
cleaned up his ragged appearance.

The doctors at the hospital in Tikrit, after performing diagnostic tests,
informed the family that Mr. Abrahim had suffered massive head trauma,
electrocution, and other beatings on his arms. An EKG proved that his heart
was functioning perfectly. The family was told that he was in an
unrecoverable state and would be in a coma for the rest of his life from the
obvious trauma suffered from torture.

The family decided to take him to Haitha, where CT and CAT scans proved the
man was in a hopeless condition. In despair, the family then took Mr.
Abrahim to Baghdad, where the same tests verified his vegetative state as
being permanent.

Now, today, three months later Mr. Abrahim lies dormant, his eyes staring
blankly at the ceiling, blinking slowly from time to time, yet completely
unresponsive to any stimuli.

This horrible situation raises many questions.

If the Americans knew who he was and where he was when they detained him,
why did they fail to provide this information to the hospital when Mr.
Abrahim was dropped off?

Why did the Americans fail to notify the hospital of Mr. Abrahim having an
accident if there had been one?

How do you explain the massive head trauma, the burns on the bottoms of his
feet caused by electrocution and bruises on his arms, if he had only
suffered a heart attack as the medical report provided by the Americans
states?

The family saw Mr. Abrahim in perfect health upon being detained by the
Americans. He was in their custody the entire time until dropped off at the
hospital in Tikrit.

No firearms, bombs, or other incriminating evidence was ever found by
searches conducted in the home of Mr. Abrahim upon his detention. His family
states that they have no idea why he was detained.

Even if the worst case scenario was true: that Mr. Abrahim was an active
member of the resistance and/or a high ranking Ba'ath Party member, does
this justify being tortured by electrical shock and being bludgeoned into a
coma?

Is this not a violation of International Law?

Should not he have been held for a trial to determine whether he was
innocent or guilty?

Today Sadiq Zoman Abrahim lies staring at the ceiling, eyes wide open, in
Haitha, Iraq.

His family is left sitting with him, with nothing else but unanswered
questions from the CPA.
Dahr Jamail
http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle5482.htm