Seventy Year Old Man Killed in US Custody

Abdulkahar Mehadi Al Jamal’s father was killed on December 21, 2003 while in the custody of US soldiers. This is the story he told CPT on March 4, 2004.

It happened on December 21 [2003] at 9:30 PM. The electricity was down. We didn’t hear the military vehicles in the neighborhood because of the voice of the generator.
We suddenly heard smashing. We opened the front door to see what happened and we see in the garden a tank destroyed our front gate. Many soldiers entered our house. I tried to tell them we have women and children—don’t point the guns at their faces but they said sit down and don’t talk.
They gathered us all into the reception room and they checked all the rooms in the house as if we are the enemy. They broke furniture and clothes boxes. They broke every door they want to look in.
When all the family was gathered we heard one shot. We learned later that they killed the guard dog.
They pushed my father against a stool. My father had a hip replacement and walks with a cane. My father was retired, a sheik, an old man. They pushed him like a criminal. They didn’t let him use his cane because his hands are tied.
They handcuffed and put plastic hoods on my, my father, my uncle and my brother.
I heard my father say, “I can’t breathe.” I told them my father can’t breathe but they didn’t listen. They took me into the back of an armoured personnel carrier.
After four or five minutes they brought my father. I couldn’t see him but I heard his sound. They pushed him into the vehicle. My father was in very bad condition at that time. He couldn’t talk because of the bag—he wasn’t getting enough air. I could hear him gasping.
I pleaded with the soldiers to help my father but they only said bad words and bad things to me when I plead. Where is the humanity? Where is the human rights?
They beat me on my chest with the end of their weapon to make me silent. I was handcuffed and hooded and I can’t see anything.
After that, my father stopped moving. One of the soldiers called on the radio, “The fucking old man may be dead.”
After that the vehicle stopped. I asked the soldiers if my father was dead but they told me to shut up. [Tears fill Abdulkahar’s eyes. He pauses to regain his composure.]
There were four of us in the back of the armoured personnel carrier. They took me and my brother and my uncle outside. I don’t know what happened to my father.
After 15 minutes, they took us to another vehicle without our father. We sat inside that vehicle for ten minutes. I asked the soldiers, “Where is my father? What happened to him?” Always they were very angry and told me to shut up.
They stopped and put us on the back of a truck. I could hear the voices of other people from the neighborhood. After 15 minutes we stopped. They took the bags and handcuffs off and returned us to our house.
We saw an American officer, one armoured vehicle and some soldiers. This officer told me my father died from a heart attack. I said you and your government killed my father.
The soldiers had put my father in the house. When I saw him there was blood on his wrists from the handcuffs.
In this one hour, the life of my family was destroyed.

Two days later, a Colonel Sassaman came to the funeral and talked with Abdulkahar and his brother Hani. Sassaman apologized for the death of their father and explained that the house raid was conducted on false information. He promised to capture the man who gave the false information. “If I don’t come and see you in two weeks, you must come and see me,” Sassaman told them.
The family went to see Sassaman ten times in the following three weeks. On the day they finally got to see him, they went three times—in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. Sassaman said the man’s name was Abdul Wadood Abdul Hay—a man well known in the Samarra area as an informant for US forces. Sassaman offered to bring Abdul to the family but they told him they wanted justice, not revenge.
Abdul was captured the next day. He was released 21 days later.
The family showed CPT a written apology on official letterhead signed by “Mr. Ken,” a “Project Forces Manager.” The letter promised that “we will not rest until this investigation is complete.” Mr. Ken returned to the United States and there have been no further developments.
Abdulkahar concluded the interview by saying, “In Samarra, everyone expects to be arrested in the night so now they wear suitable clothes and their ID to bed.”
Abdulkahar is working on his PhD in Chemical Engineering at Baghdad University and is an assistant lecturer at Tikrit University. He is 30 years old.
Abdulkahar’s father, Mahadi Al Jamal, was seventy years old. He was a retired land surveyor who worked for the Ministry of Justice. In 1988, he was elected to represent his region in the national legislature but was prevented from claiming his seat by the Saddam regime because was not a member of the Ba’ath Party. Abdulkahar is the youngest of 5 sons and 6 daughters.