BAGHDAD - Iraq's human rights ministry says it wants to put on trial torturers who benefit from full immunity despite what it says are dozens of proven cases of abuse in the country's prisons.
"We call on the government and judicial authorities to ensure the protection of prisoners, to punish torturers and not to include them on amnesty lists," said Saad Sultan, head of the ministry's prisons supervision service.
Iraq, which on Sunday announced it has ratified the UN convention against torture, has no law against the practice.
"It's true that there is no specific law but they (torturers) could be charged for voluntary blows and injuries," the senior official said late Monday.
He said 121 "proven cases" of detainees -- including three women -- being tortured had been unearthed in 2007. Two-thirds of them were in interior ministry facilities and the rest in centres run by the defence ministry.
"The culprits are being investigated but this type of case takes time," said Sultan, without reporting any arrests.
"We don't have statistics for previous years but there were definitely hundreds of cases of torture in 2004 and 2005, before the number started to decline in 2006," he said.
Sultan's supervision team was set up in 2006 with a complement of 82 investigators. Funded by the European Union, they were trained in Germany and by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
It started work in earnest in 2007.
The United Nations Special Investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, says he has been granted authorisation to visit Iraqi prisons in October.
The mission would follow allegations in 2006 from some quarters that torture in Iraq was now even worse than during the rule of Saddam Hussein.
According to Sultan, last year "68 inmates died in prison for various reasons such as illness or mortar attacks, but 14 cases are still under review because the death probably occurred under torture."
The majority of deaths have occurred in holding cells controlled by the interior ministry.
Excluding the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, the number of detainees in the country is 47,445, of whom 23,229 are in prisons controlled by US forces, according to figures from the committee.
The justice ministry has 14 central prisons under its control, including one for women and four for minors, while three others are under the authority of US forces, said Kamel.
The army and police run an additional 35 holding centres.
Sultan said the reasons behind the frequent use of torture were varied, including revenge such as in the case of suspects in the killing of security personnel.
"There is also torture during interrogations carried out by inexperienced investigators who want to extort information or those who want to steal money," Sultan said.
In 2004, various means of torture were still being carried out, including the use of hot pokers, electricity, beatings with bats as well as hanging by the arms or feet.
"Today, it has declined but also changed. They prefer to use ill-treatment which leaves no traces, such as electricity or cold water," he said.
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