Mohammed Hussein - Iraq

Last updated: 26 January 2012

British family man imprisoned in Iraq for years on an unsafe conviction

Mohammed Hussein, concerned for his family’s safety after the death of his brother, went to visit his family in Iraq in January 2007. Not long after his arrival, Mohammed became alarmed at the number of other new arrivals to the village, many of them armed. On 27 January the family’s house was hit by a missile and sadly Mohammed’s mother and sister were killed. The next morning Mohammed and his family, including several young children walked towards the approaching American soldiers with a white towel to show their peaceful intentions. The Iraqi army assumed responsibility shortly thereafter and were informed by their American counterparts that a British family was among those being apprehended.

Despite this, Mohammed was rounded up and detained with the other men found in the village and charged with being a member of an Iraqi Shia cult, accused of attacking Iraqi and American forces. Mohammed’s wife and two-year-old son were also arrested and imprisoned for two months, before being freed and allowed to return to the UK. Mohammed claims that, while on remand, he suffered intense torture and mistreatment at the hands of Iraqi authorities; he was forced to sign a ‘confession’ on two occasions after he was severely beaten. Mohammed was subjected to a sham trial process with 400 co-defendants, during which he was questioned for just 10 minutes and the only evidence presented was that Mohammed had been in the area at the time of the attacks. All 400 defendants were found guilty and Mohammed was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. While in prison he received no visits from the British embassy.

Mohammed spent two and half years in an Iraqi prison until, in April 2009, an appeal court in Baghdad ruled that he should be released immediately. The court declared that he should have been included in a Presidential Amnesty issued in February 2007 designed to free those who had played no part in terrorist activities. He returned to Birmingham and was reunited with his family in May 2009.
 

• Mohammed Hussein interview for 2010-11 Annual Review