Saad Salim Abdullah

Saad Salim Abdullah was arrested together with two friends in 2001 for smuggling a small amount of rice. He had done so as a result of hardship caused by the sanctions against Iraq. He was only 14 years old.

He says he was taken to the Baath Party headquarters in the town of Bartella. He stayed there for two days before being transferred to the police station, and then was brought before a judge in the Hamdaniye district. He was sentenced to six months in the Ahdath Prison, which at the time was a juvenile detention center. 

Saad recounts how the jailers’ brutal treatment terrified him, made him cry, and caused him to feel suffocated at night. The jailers were either Baath Party members or uniformed members of the armed forces. 

Among the prisoners were children arrested on charges of theft, robbery, and murder. Saad says the children should neither have been in prison nor have had anything to do with prison. Nevertheless, the jailers beat them and generally treated them very poorly. They were made to sleep at ten in the evening and to wake up at seven in the morning. Upon waking up, they were taken outside for 30 minutes of yard time to see the sun, before being brought back in.

Saad says that there were around 250 children in the group cell. They slept side by side on mattresses brought in by their families. They ate, drank, and used the bathrooms all within the group cell. The conditions improved when the prison officials renovated and cleaned the cells properly, equipping them with beds and tables. He states that this significantly boosted their morale.

Saad recalls that the group cells were very spacious. There were two rooms designated for newly arrived juveniles, separate from the younger children. He doesn’t remember encountering any political prisoners, though he acknowledges that, as a child, he might not have recognized or understood such issues. He cannot confirm if there were any informants planted among the prisoners. There were certain guards, two in particular, who terrified the juvenile prisoners to such a degree that they were frightened to even whisper.

The witness recounts the favoritism and corruption within the prison, mentioning how jailers accepted bribes from prisoners in exchange for not harming them, either physically or psychologically. He recalls being tied up and whipped on his feet because of a fight with another prisoner. Despite his swollen feet, the jailers ordered him to run. This was done to inflict even more pain. He did as he was told, and it hurt so much he started to cry. A similar thing happened to two other prisoners, who, after fighting, were savagely flogged with electric cables. This terrorized the rest of the inmates. Saad does not recall any incidents of sexual harassment, however.

Saad describes how the juvenile prisoners spontaneously divided into groups of eight or nine, with each group not bothering the others. They spent their time talking to those in their group. 

Regarding food, Saad says they were given bread with two eggs, and sometimes two pieces of cheese, for breakfast. For both lunch and dinner, they had rice and soup. Health care was limited to basic medication.

At first family visits were conducted through windows, but later the juveniles were permitted to spend time with their families in the yard. There, they would be left with their families, and without handcuffs, for an hour.

Saad challenges the idea that this juvenile detention center taught or benefited the young prisoners in any way. No mental health care or rehabilitation was provided. On the contrary, some young men learned about crime inside the prison. They left the prison only to reoffend – particularly those arrested for theft. Saad wonders how the young inmates could have possibly changed for the better when, throughout their detention, no care institutions or children’s rights organizations visited the prison to inquire about their conditions or how they were treated.

Saad then recalls a remarkable incident in prison involving a boy named Omar, who had been accused of raping and killing his neighbor’s daughter. Everyone had been talking about his crime. Nevertheless, he received special treatment because his father was an official. This highlighted the discrimination between prisoners; those with powerful connections were treated well, while the powerless were neglected. The sons of officials always received special treatment, even though most of them were being held on charges of either murder or attempted murder.

Finally, Saad recounts how his release required more than just completing his sentence; his family had to pay a hefty fine they could not afford, forcing them to borrow the money. He felt immense relief when he was finally free. He hopes no one else experiences imprisonment, as it destroys a person’s morale, especially at a young age.