Disclaimer: This story contains disturbing imagery, including references to sexual assault and violence.
Three police personnel and a duty officer allegedly raped a 26-year-old detainee at Iraq’s Al-Nahda Police Station in Diwaniyah province in late July, according to Arabic media reports and statements made by official ministries.
Investigations into the incident began after senior officials at the station realized that the surveillance cameras had been turned off.
Sundus Al-Mousawi, head of the Women and Children Committee on the Diwaniyah Provincial Council, told Independent Arabia that the young woman had been detained at the station in connection with a legal case under Article 248, which criminalizes actions involving deceit, alteration of evidence and the provision of false information during an investigation.
“On July 28, reports circulated on social media that a 26-year-old woman had been sexually assaulted by a captain, a police commissioner and two police officers. I immediately went to the office of the police commander, Major General Najah Al-Bayati, to ask about the details of the crime,” Mousawi said.
“We were told that one of the officers had called and informed them that the cameras at the station had been switched off. It was 4 a.m. when we went to the station to investigate. There, we questioned the female detainees, who told us that a girl had been taken out for two hours. After questioning, the captain and police officers confessed to the immoral crime that had taken place under the Iraqi flag and under the umbrella of the law.”
The victim was from 'difficult social circumstances'
Mousawi described the young woman as a “thin, pale” orphan with four children who was the victim of difficult social circumstances.
Human rights researcher and activist Manar Al-Zubaidi told the site that “the woman has no income and needs psychological support.”
“Her dignity cannot be violated in a security institution that is supposed to protect her and represent the sovereignty of the state,” Zubaidi said.
Though the Interior Ministry published a statement saying that “the ministry will not tolerate any violation that harms human dignity or contravenes the law,” human rights activists and lawyers commenting on the case said there were limits to the number of women who would see justice, as social stigma and external pressure often force women into silence, allowing perpetrators to go free.
Mousawi has reportedly since demanded that a prison managed by female staff be established for female prisoners.
Rapists are often allowed to escape justice in Iraq, under Article 398 of the Iraqi Penal Code, which allows them to escape justice so long as they marry their victim. The maximum penalty for rape, without the marriage of the victim, can be life in prison depending on the circumstances surrounding the case.