CPT Iraq - Human Rights Testimonies

Fallujah Detainee: Latif Ali Hmoud

The following testimony was given by the family of Latif at their home in Fallujah, and was recorded on 27 April 2005 by Sheila Provencher and Tom Fox. Sami Rasouli, the director of the newly formed Muslim Peacemaker Team in Karbala, Iraq, did translation .

Latif was a pilot in the Iraqi Air Force under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Following the U.S.- led invasion he was without work for nine months. In December of 2003 he applied for a position with the Iraqi National Guard (ING). He was accepted and was promoted to battalion commander within several months. In September of 2004, as the U.S. military was preparing for the assault on Fallujah, he was arrested in the ING compound and taken to a series of detention facilities. His family had no word on his whereabouts, but traveled to Abu Ghraib to look for him in late December of 2004. They discovered that he was in Camp Bucca in the south of Iraq. It was not until April of 2005 that his oldest son, Ali, was able to visit him. Ali said that his father told him that Bucca was OK, with decent food, water and medical care. But the ID bracelet that Latif was wearing had a picture from the beginning of his detention and Ali was shocked. He said the picture was “terrifying”, his father looking very weak and distraught. Ali said, “I couldn't say a word, just weeping.”

Latif told Ali of the history of his detainment. He said in his first detention facility, British forces interrogated him regarding connections and names of insurgents in Fallujah. They determined that he did not have any information and told him he would be released, but instead the British turned him over to U.S. forces. The U.S. interrogators moved him to several detention facilities. The worst treatment he received was at the detention facility at the Baghdad airport. Latif said the U.S. interrogators confined him in a tiny cell he called a “coffin” with one small light bulb for fifteen days. He was taken out only for questioning. He told his son, “At this point I felt like I am dead.”

He told his son that he still has not been charged with any crime and he is hoping to be released, but he has no way of knowing when that might happen. His sequence number is 165719.

His family is receiving some income from his service in the Iraqi air force but during the assault on Fallujah they fled to Baghdad, and when they returned their house had been ransacked and suffered some structural damage. They have applied for compensation but have not received anything. His mother-in-law told the CPTers, “My son-in-law is very compassionate, he has no trouble with anybody.”