Ahmad Jihad Abdulkader Rajab

Ahmad Jihad Abdulkader Rajab is married with five children. During the ISIS occupation, he worked odd jobs because he could not find permanent employment.  In 2017, ISIS members arrested him at his house in the Rashidiya neighborhood of Mosul for selling cigarettes.

Ahmad was detained in the Meydan Prison. He was surprised to meet a relative there who had also been detained on the charge of selling cigarettes. He learned that this relative had been kept in prison even after his family paid the fine imposed by ISIS.  

Ahmad explains that he was interrogated upon arrival, and was tortured three times. The interrogation focused on the amount of cigarettes he was selling. His interrogators exaggerated the amount in order to extract higher fines from him.  

Ahmad faced severe torture. Once he was suspended from his limbs all night, from eight pm until six am. He was also beaten with water hoses all over his body, especially on his feet. To escape from the pain, he eventually confessed to whatever his jailers wanted.

Ahmad says the water provided in the cell was both scarce and dirty. This corresponds to other prisoners’ testimonies. Moreover, the toilet broke, and the water was cut off many times. Ahmad says that the prisoners cleaned the bathroom and cell regularly with detergents and other cleaning supplies. 

Regarding the food, he explains that the meals were always the same during his detention; bread and cheese in the morning, rice with an onion and potato soup in the afternoon, and pasta in the evening. The meals were meagre and poorly made.

One day, Ahmad was surprised to be taken to the Dawwasah area, where he saw his car parked. An ISIS member told him he was going to be burned alive in his car. However, that did not happen. Instead, he was forced to confess on camera to selling cigarettes, of course without mentioning his torture in prison. 

Afterwards, an ISIS judge ordered his car to be burned, and sentenced Ahmad to 150 lashes in public – even though his family had already been fined 9,000,000 Iraqi dinars (around USD 21,600) in exchange for his release. Ahmad’s punishment did not end there. He was put in prison for three more days and was flogged 50 lashes each day before being released. When he was finally released, he stopped by a fried fish stall on his way home and bought one fish. It was his first decent meal after 35 days in prison.