Ismail Ibrahim Khalil

Ismail Ibrahim Khalil is a taxi driver. He is married and has four children. Late in 2016, he was arrested by ISIS and put in the Midan Prison in Mosul on the charge of selling cigarettes and distracting people from remembering God. He denied the charge categorically.

 

Ismail thinks that an ISIS member with an old personal grudge against him fabricated the charge, especially since he had been arrested previously on the same charge and detained in an old church in Mosul.

In this testimony, Ismail explains that the cruelty at the Midan Prison started the moment he stepped inside. Without knowing his charge or hearing his statement, ISIS members pointed a gun to his head, swore at him, and beat him mercilessly.

During his detention in the Midan prison, he was taken to the basement ten times. Ismail describes his torture by a tool that ISIS members called ‘hantourah’. It resembles a metal bed standing up vertically. His body was tied tightly to this hantourah, then it was turned upside down. In this position, he was flogged. A torture session could extend for up to three hours. Jailers used to put a piece of cloth in his mouth to muffle his increasing screams. They also poured water on his wounds. After a torture session, the prisoners were unable to walk back to their cell. They had to be carried there in a blanket.

 

Ismail relates some incidents of extreme brutality that he witnessed in prison. In one such incident, a tribal elder was repeatedly hit on his kidneys, making him urinate blood. Moreover, the jailers initially refused to give him any medical care. Eventually, his health deteriorated dramatically and some medicines were brought for him.

 

Ismail explains that relations between the prisoners in the cell were good. He did not witness any arguments between them. He indicates, however, that there were spies in the cell who reported things to the jailers.

 

He says that he and other prisoners thought about escaping. They even worked on a plan and monitored the door leading to the roof and the movement of guards in the building. But, he did not dare to try. For him, it seemed an impossible mission. 

 

Turning to the food, he explains that breakfast had already been scrapped by the time he was in prison. Prisoners were served two meager meals, at lunch and dinner. He adds that the jailers once hosted a lunch for sheikhs. They ordered a lot of food from restaurants, and the prisoners were given the leftovers. 

 

Moving to his release, Ismail says it came after 57 days in detention, around a third of which were spent in the torture basement. To secure his release, he had to pay a fine of 7,312,500 dinars. He explains that he is still paying back the debts he incurred while raising this amount. He narrates how he returned to his family, who had lost hope of ever seeing him released. They lived through tough times in his absence, especially since he was the sole breadwinner for his big family.

 

Ismail concludes by talking about the injustice and oppression that the people of Mosul suffered at the hands of ISIS. He also opens up about his personal difficulties and suffering after his release, including the tragic loss of his 10-year-old son to bone cancer just ten days before the interview was recorded.

 

He says his son, who was six at the time of his arrest, was traumatized by the ISIS raid to arrest him, and got sick after that. Ismail spent the four years trying to treat his son but to no avail. He finishes by cursing ISIS and praying to God to punish them for depriving his son of a normal life, and for depriving him of his son.