The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of Mr. Mohammed Al-Dainy, a member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/185/11(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 184th session (April 2009),

Noting that at the session it held during the 121st Assembly, the Committee met with a member of the Iraqi delegation; taking into account the letters from the President of the Higher Judicial Council and the First Deputy Speaker of the Council of Representatives, in addition to information provided by the source,

Recalling the following:

• Mr. Al-Dainy, a member of the National Dialogue Front, was elected in March 2006 to the Council of Representatives of Iraq. As an MP, he concentrated on human rights issues, investigating in particular conditions of detention in Iraq and the existence of secret detention facilities. In October 2008, he shared the information he had gathered with competent United Nations human rights bodies in Geneva;

• On 22 February 2009, the spokesperson for Baghdad’s military security command accused Mr. Al-Dainy of masterminding the 12 April 2007 suicide bombing in parliament, which killed a member of parliament. On 25 February 2009, parliament lifted his immunity in a procedure which has been challenged by Mr. Al‑Dainy’s lawyer but found to be in accordance with relevant rules by the Federal Court. Earlier the same day (25 February), a plane bound for Jordan with Mr. Al-Dainy and other members of parliament on board had been returned and an attempt made to arrest Mr. Al-Dainy. However, failing an arrest warrant and the lifting of immunity, the arrest did not take place. Mr. Al-Dainy subsequently left the airport in the company of another member of parliament and disappeared. Fears that he might have been the victim of an enforced disappearance proved to be unsubstantiated when Mr. Al-Dainy himself declared in an interview with a private TV channel that he had gone abroad for fear of his life;

• Ten members of Mr. Al-Dainy’s family, including his 85-year-old father, and another nine members of his staff (mainly escorts) were arrested in different stages during February 2009 and detailed information has been provided by the source about the circumstances of their arrest without warrants, their ill-treatment and the ransacking of their homes. Apart from his father and two of his staff, all the other persons have reportedly remained in detention,

Considering in this respect the following:

• On 22 February 2009, Mr. Al-Dainy’s nephew and secretary, Ryad Ibrahim Jasem, and the head of his security detail, Mr. Alaa Khayr Allah Al Maliki, appeared on the public TV channel Al Iraqia and confessed to belonging to a terrorist organization set up by Mr. Al-Dainy. They appeared to be tired and drugged and visibly under duress; on 14 September 2009, they were reportedly given a life sentence at the closure of a hearing which reportedly lasted just a few minutes;

• On 22 June 2009, Mr. Mahmoud Karim Farhan, a family member of Mr. Al-Dainy arrested on 22 February 2009 was released; he had been held in incommunicado detention in Baghdad Brigade Prison in the city’s Green Zone; in July 2009 he publicly testified to the circumstances of his arrest and that of other bodyguards and the torture inflicted on them to testify against Mr. Al-Dainy; Mr. Farhan and other members of the group suffered serious injuries to their shoulders and on different parts of their bodies because of this treatment;

• In late July 2009, Mr. Haqi Al-Qasi, a lawyer of Mr. Al-Dainy’s bodyguards, was assassinated;

• On 4 August 2009, the Mayor and notables of Kanaan district certified that Army Captain Haqi Ismael Al-Shamary, whom Mr. Al-Dainy is accused of having killed, was in fact alive and working normally,

Considering that Iraq is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which it ratified in 1971; that the Covenant guarantees the right to life and security, prohibits torture arbitrary arrest and detention and stipulates fair trial guarantees; noting in this respect the concerns which the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers has voiced on many occasions regarding the observance of those rights in Iraq,

1. Thanks the Iraqi delegate with whom the Committee met for his cooperation; also thanks the parliamentary authorities and the President of the Higher Judicial Council of Iraq for their cooperation;

2. Is relieved to note that Mr. Al-Dainy has reappeared and that fears of an enforced disappearance have proved unsubstantiated;

3. Is deeply concerned that the accusation against Mr. Al-Dainy may indeed be based entirely on testimony extracted under torture and be wholly fabricated; emphasizes that by virtue of the international human rights treaties ratified by Iraq, evidence obtained under torture must be dismissed, and that otherwise proceedings are fundamentally flawed for that reason alone; urges the authorities, as is their duty, to investigate the torture allegations in this case without further delay and to take serious account of the testimony provided by Mr. Farhan; calls on the parliament to monitor this case and to consider setting up a parliamentary inquiry to this end;

4. Is appalled that Ryad Ibrahim Jasem and Alaa Khayr Allah Al Maliki may have been given a life sentence after a hearing lasting just a few minutes, and wishes to receive official information regarding their trial, the evidence gathered to sustain the accusation against them, and to receive a copy of the judgment handed down on them;

5. Remains deeply concerned at the reports concerning the arrest and incommunicado detention of Mr. Al-Dainy’s family members and staff, their alleged ill-treatment at the hands of military personnel and the ransacking of their homes; recalls that Iraq is bound to respect the right to liberty and security of the person, which require the existence of sufficient legal grounds to charge persons with a recognizable criminal offence, respect for the right of detainees to have access to a lawyer, to their family and to a medical doctor and to challenge the legality of their detention before a court; wishes to ascertain their situation and urges the parliament once again to seek this information from the authorities;

6. Is likewise alarmed at the killing of the lawyer of Mr. Al-Dainy’s bodyguards and wishes to ascertain whether an investigation into his killing has been instituted and its result, if any;

7. Affirms that the fact that one of the accusations brought against Mr. Al-Dainy has turned out to be false, compounded by the treatment inflicted on his family members and staff, only serve to heighten concerns over the fabrication of the charges against him;

8. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the parliamentary authorities and to the Prime Minister, inviting them to provide the requested information;

9. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 122nd IPU Assembly (March-April 2010).

Note: you can download a complete electronic version of the brochure "Results of the 121st IPU Assembly and related meetings" in PDF format (file size 583K approximately). This version requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download free of charge.

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