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 at the time of the submission of the communication, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/188/13(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 187th session (October 2010),

Taking into account the information provided by the sources in January 2011,

Recalling the following:

• Mr. Al-Dainy, a member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq for the legislative period 2006-2010, is known to have investigated 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 25 February 2009, parliament lifted his immunity on account of an accusation of having masterminded the 12 April 2007 suicide bombing in parliament; Mr. Al-Dainy fled abroad for fear of his life;

• Ten members of his family 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; the release of some of them later in 2009 and 2010 has revealed ample evidence that they were tortured to implicate Mr. Al-Dainy in the commission of crimes, namely (a) bombing of the Parliament; (b) launching mortar shells into the international zone during the visit of the Iranian President, and murdering one of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood from where the shells were launched; (c) detonating car bombs; (d) using his convoy of vehicles to carry the weapons that were used for crimes; (e) murdering two jewellery store owners in the Al-Mansour area; (f) killing 115 people from Al‑Tahweela village who were buried alive; (g) fabricating arrest warrants; (h) murdering seven persons in the Al Yarmuk area; (i) murdering Captain Ismail Haqi Al-Shamary; in that case, it turned out that Captain Al-Shamary was in fact alive and working normally,

Recalling that on 24 January 2010, Mr. Al-Dainy was sentenced to death in absentia; that the verdict consists of a little more than one page (French translation), contains two paragraphs dealing with the suicide bombing in parliament and one on the bombing of the Green Zone, six lines on the storing of weapons, the founding of a terrorist organization linked to the Baath party, and to prove that Mr. Al-Dainy committed these crimes, relies heavily on the testimonies of Riadh Ibrahim, Alaa Kherallah, Haydar Abdallah and a secret informant; that it does not refer to any of the other accusations,

Recalling that reports published in April 2010 by the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry reveal the existence of secret detention centres, some at the time under the direct control of Prime Minister Al‑Maliki, and the routine practice of torture in those secret prisons,

Recalling also that the joint study on global practices in relation to secret detention in the context of countering terrorism of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the Working Group on Arbitrary or Involuntary Disappearances (A/HRC/13/42), presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council at its 13th session, includes a chapter on secret detention centres in Iraq and explicitly mentions the group of people arrested in connection with accusations against Mr. Al‑Dainy and held in secret detention in a prison in the Green Zone run by the Baghdad Brigade; it describes the torture inflicted on them (beating with cables, suspension from the ceiling by either the feet or the hands for up to two days at a time, electroshocks, black bags being put over the head to suffocate them, plastic sticks introduced into the rectum, threat of rape of family members) and their being forced to sign and fingerprint pre-prepared confessions,

Bearing in mind that the 2005 Constitution of Iraq contains a human rights catalogue guaranteeing the following fundamental rights: Article 15: right to life, security and liberty, Article 17 (para. 2): sanctity of the home; homes may not be entered, searched or put in danger except by a judicial decision and in accordance with the law; Article 19 (para. 12): prohibition of unlawful detention and detention in places not designed for it,

Bearing in mind also 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,

Noting that there is nothing on file which would enable it to arrive at another conclusion than that it expressed in its resolution of October 2010,

1. Considers that, in view of the existing evidence, there can be no doubt that Mr. Al‑Dainy was sentenced to death at the close of a procedure which can only be termed a travesty of justice; calls on the authorities to quash this iniquitous judgment forthwith and to fully rehabilitate Mr. Al-Dainy;

2. Recalls that the Iraqi authorities have a duty to abolish the secret detention centres, to investigate the serious allegations of torture and to bring the culprits to justice;

3. Calls on the Council of Representatives and the Speaker to ensure the rehabilitation of a former colleague who was punished on account of having, in the exercise of his parliamentary mandate, revealed the existence of those secret detention centres, and to make every effort to eradicate the practice of torture in Iraq;

4. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the Speaker and to the other competent authorities;

5. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held during the 124th IPU Assembly (April 2011), in the hope that by then Mr. Al‑Dainy will have been fully rehabilitated.

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