This prison was in the Jumhouri (Republican) Hospital, located in the Shifa neighborhood of Mosul. Built in 1938, the hospital was one of the first medical facilities in the city. It included a medical complex with a nursing school and medical school. After capturing Mosul in 2014, ISIS converted the 240-square-meter hospital basement into a prison in which it detained former Iraqi military officers and soldiers, as well as people accused of ridiculing or modifying the Quran. According to former detainees, the humidity level in the prison was very high as no sunlight reached the cell. This, and the lack of health care, resulted in illnesses among the prisoners. Hanging detainees by their limbs (shabh) was one of the main methods of torture in the prison. Detainees were tied and lifted by a hoist attached to the ceiling, then beaten with an iron tool all over their bodies. According to witnesses, detainees were blindfolded and their hands were tied behind their backs before being taken for interrogation, and were ordered to kneel once they reached the interrogation room. The main name associated with this prison is that of a judge called Abu Hareth, who was in charge of the prison. He was an officer in the intelligence service during Saddam Hussein’s rule. The hospital suffered a great deal of damage during the battles to expel ISIS from Mosul, which lasted for months. After the expulsion of ISIS from Mosul in 2017, the Azba field hospital was moved to the Jumhouri Hospital.

This prison was in the Salam Educational Hospital located between the Wahda and Mazare neighborhoods in Mosul. Locally known as the Saddam Hospital, it was built in 1985 as one of the four main hospitals in Mosul. After capturing Mosul in 2014, ISIS converted the hospital into a prison in which it detained former officers in the army of Saddam Hussein. In particular, the prison was used to detain those who were given prison sentences that ranged from six months to a year. According to witness testimonies, healthcare in this prison was relatively better than in other ISIS prisons. A doctor or nurse visited twice a week to check on the detainees. The main name associated with this prison is Abu Aisha, who was the judge in charge of the prison. The hospital building, which was destroyed by the time ISIS left Mosul in 2017, is still in ruins today. This is the case with most of the city’s hospitals, which were destroyed during the battles of Mosul.

This prison was located in the Najda al-Nahriyya (River Rescue) Police Department building on the Kournish al-Siyahi Street in Mosul. The department reported to the Nineveh Provincial Police Department and was tasked with monitoring the Tigris for drownings and potential floods or other natural disasters. Two months after capturing Mosul in June 2014, ISIS converted the building into a prison. Senior officials in the Iraqi government and civilians who were friends or had business links with members of the Shabak sect, a Shia minority that mainly live in the Nineveh Plain in Mosul, were detained in this prison. Detainees also included ISIS members who were accused of committing violations such as stealing from confiscated homes. According to witnesses, ISIS used part of the building as a real estate court after confiscating the money, properties, lands, and livestock of Christians, Shia, Yazidis, and ‘apostates’. Former detainees in the prison say they witnessed torture and executions inside the prison. Prisoners who had relations with Christians were threatened with being divorced from their wives. The main names associated with this prison are the prison judge Hassan al-Eferi and the interrogator Muhannad al-Eferi, who was a former lecturer at the Faculty of Biology of Mosul University. After the expulsion of ISIS from Mosul in 2017, the Nineveh Police Department reconstructed the building, added more caravans, and reopened it as a river rescue police department.

This prison was in the Bahou al-Maliki building near the Shuhada Park and the Mosul Museum which overlooks the Tigris. The building was built in 1941 to host cultural and social events and festivals sponsored by the Nineveh Archaeology Department. After capturing Mosul in 2014, ISIS converted the building’s large hall into a group cell in which it detained judges and attorneys who had handled terrorism cases, some election candidates, and High Electoral Commission employees. People accused of sorcery and smuggling Yazidis to other Iraqi cities were also detained in this prison. According to former prisoners, the group cell was so overcrowded that prisoners had to coil up to sleep. Regarding torture, witnesses say that electric cables were applied to the bodies of detainees to administer electric shocks until they lost consciousness or died. Detainees were always blindfolded and handcuffed before being interrogated. One witness reports that executions were carried out both inside and outside the prison. He adds that a man accused of sorcery was beheaded in public in Bab al-Toub square in central Mosul. The main name associated with this prison is the prison judge Abu Hussein, also known as Qadi al-Dima (or the Blood Judge). He was imprisoned during the era of Saddam Hussein on the charge of murder but was released in 2002 by a general pardon. He was detained again by the American forces and spent a year in Camp Bucca before being released. After the expulsion of ISIS from Mosul in 2017, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) restored the destroyed building in collaboration with local organizations. The building has returned to host festivals, literary forums, and cultural events.

This prison was in the Ishik School building in the Dubbat neighborhood in Mosul. This was a Turkish school built in 2008. It had branches in other locations in Iraq. Two months after capturing Mosul in June 2014, ISIS converted the school into a night court and prison for Iraqi military and police officers and candidates for election in the period before ISIS took control. ISIS made changes to the two-story building including building four mobile rooms (caravans) on the roof, which were used for torture and execution. According to former prisoners in the Ishik School Prison interviewed by the IPM, interrogation, torture, and sentencing were all done at night. The main torture methods were pulling out nails and puncturing feet with an electric drill. The main names associated with this prison are Abu Aisha or Haji Zaid, who was the judge in charge of the prison and the supreme judge of ISIS or Qadi al-Qudat; Abu Barzan, the leader of the ‘death squad’; and a group of jailers including Abu Bareq and Abu Asad. According to the witnesses, the leader of the death squad at the prison had the authority to kill any detainee during interrogation by shooting them in the head. After the expulsion of ISIS from Mosul in 2017, the building was restored and became the headquarters of a private contracting company.

This prison was located in Mosul’s Dawwasa area. It repurposed the Veterans Association building, which had been built in 1951 on the bank of the Tigris. The Veterans Association was created to serve retired military personnel and the families of dead soldiers. It was the first association of its kind in the Arab world. After its capture of Mosul in 2014, ISIS divided the building into two sections. One was converted into a sharia court for marriage and divorce contracts and inheritance matters. The other was converted into a prison. Though people were detained on various charges, the majority of detainees were tribal representatives. Other detainees included Iraqi military officers, police officers, electoral commission employees, and men accused of spying for the Iraqi security forces. According to former detainees in this prison interviewed by the IPM, interrogation and torture were conducted after midnight, and involved sharp tools being inserted into sensitive areas of a detainee’s body. In most cases, the detainees were chained and blindfolded. The most prominent names associated with this prison are Abu Aisha, who was appointed a judge in charge of the prison, and Abu Islam, who was the Emir. After the expulsion of ISIS from Mosul in 2017, the building was returned to its former use as a Veterans Association .

This prison was located in the Qaimaqamiya building in the Dubbat neighborhood of Mosul. The construction of the building started in 2012. It was intended to be an administrative office of the Iraqi government. Seven days after its capture of Mosul in June 2014, ISIS members mounted a sign on the building, which was still under construction, reading ‘Sharia Court’. However, the building was in fact converted into a prison in which torture and group executions were carried out. The prison had two cells, one for those on severe charges and another for those charged with lighter crimes. The former cell mainly held Iraqi military officers, intelligence service agents, police officers, judges, and former election candidates. The latter mainly held people detained on charges which ISIS did not consider ‘security cases’, such as selling cigarettes. According to former prisoners in the Qaimaqamiya Prison interviewed by the IPM, the punishments for the light charges were fines, flogging, or several months in prison. Those charged with more serious ‘security’ offenses, on the other hand, were tortured to death, executed at night, or thrown alive into the Khasfah hole south of Mosul. The accounts of several witnesses mention the use of ‘shabh’ by ISIS torturers. This meant that a detainee’s hands were tied behind his back and that he was suspended from them for three hours, until his shoulders were bruised or dislocated, or he died. Jailers also used electricity as a torture. Detainees were forced to sit on a metal chair connected to electricity, and were electrocuted until they lost consciousness or died. The names of certain ISIS judges and jailers became associated with the Qaimaqamiya Prison. They include Abu Aisha or Haji Zaid, who was the supreme judge of ISIS, or ‘Qadi al-Qudat’; the interrogation judge Abu Hussein, who was known as the ‘blood judge’; and the ISIS members in charge of torture, Abu Taha, Abu Jabal, and Abu Abdul Rahman. Healthcare was almost non-existent in the prison. According to witness testimonies, a detainee on a light charge received one piece of underwear every two weeks. Every two days, a nurse visited the prison and prescribed basic medication for the sick. The medication was sourced from pharmacies owned by the detainees. After the expulsion of ISIS from Mosul in 2017, the Iraqi authorities restored the Qaimaqamiya building.

This prison was located in the former Turkish consulate building which is located near the Tigris River in Mosul’s Jousaq neighborhood. It was built in 1965. After capturing Mosul in 2014, ISIS converted the building into a security prison. It fortified the building and made changes to some of its rooms. It also installed five iron cages in the yard. Detainees were kept under the sun in these cages as a form of torture. One former detainee who was interviewed by the IPM describes it as one of the bloodiest ISIS prisons. He says he witnessed group executions of Iraqi army officers as well as of local and federal policemen. The detainees in this prison were mainly charged with being ‘apostate soldiers.’ That was how ISIS jailers described them for working under the command of Nouri al-Maliki’s government. The witness stresses that almost all detainees in this prison were executed. The very few that survived paid huge sums of money in return for their lives. As for torture, the witness describes how a detainee was stripped of his clothes and made to sit on an iron chair with sharp edges, and how a jailer stood on his thighs until the sharp edges pierced his flesh, while another jailer hit him on the head. The witness also explains that there was no healthcare in the prison. The detainees’ health deteriorated as they lived in dark cells without ventilation or any exposure to sunlight. Many suffered from scabies and other skin diseases. After the expulsion of ISIS from Mosul in 2017, the building was reconstructed and turned into an office for the Iraqi Red Crescent. Turkey moved its consulate to a new building in the Faisaliyya neighborhood.

This prison was located in a former school in the Faisaliyya area of Mosul. The high school was built in 1959, and was converted into a prison after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. The American forces detained people charged with security offenses and considered ‘terrorists’. The detainees were held here temporarily pending trial, then were transferred to other prisons. When ISIS captured Mosul in 2014, it seized control of the prison and used it to detain local people it considered a security risk. The design of the building was not changed by ISIS. According to a former detainee in the Tasfirat Prison, ISIS appointed Abu Hareth, a former agent of Saddam Hussein’s security apparatus, as a judge in the prison. Abu Barzan al-Hadidi was made his assistant. In his interview with the ISIS Prisons Museum, the witness says that detainees were not usually brought before the judge separately, but that the judge came at night to insult them and to slap whoever argued with him. The witness saw the public execution of a detainee in the prison yard, after the judge had sentenced him to death by beheading. The witness also reports that anyone who complained about the religious lessons that ISIS imposed on the detainees was taken to a torture room. The detainee would spend three days in that room, then return to the to cell with visible scars and bruises from the torture. The Tasfirat Prison was damaged during the battles to expel ISIS from Mosul. After the ISIS withdrawal from the city in 2017, the building was reconstructed. It then became a temporary detention center used by the anti-terrorism department of the Iraqi government.

In 2014, ISIS seized the building of the Ahdath (juvenile) Prison in Mosul, and converted it into one of the most notorious security prisons in Iraq. ISIS used the prison for 46 days until it was bombed on August 6, 2014.

In 2013, ISIS seized the Municipal Stadium In Raqqa then converted it into one of its most notorious security prisons in which it detained journalists and activists

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