Baghdad, August 13, 2005 – The defense lawyer of Taha Yassin Ramadan, vice president of the overthrown president Saddam Hussein, has accused the Iraqi police of beating him after receiving him from the American forces and introducing him to the investigation council, about two months ago.

Thamer Mahmoud, attorney at law, said that he has recently met with Ramadan and has been informed that Ramadan "has been exposed to beating on 16/06/2005. His eyes were blinded and he was taken alongwith 6 of the pillars of the regime from their detention location to another location, about 1 hour drive." He pointed out that Ramadan told him that the guards "have let them down in a big hall in a tunnel under the ground. A part of his eye cover moved and he found out that they were at the headquarters on the national command, which he knows very well, due to his working there. Ramadan has supervised the construction of the building, due to his position as a former minister of housing and construction and that he knows all the details of the building."

It was decided that the American party hand them to the investigation committee, to be investigated with regard of the issue of wasting public money. He pointed out, "The American forces handed them to Iraqi police, one after the other. There was a ten meters turn, which the US forces do not see them at, where they bunched and hit Ramadan and the other suspects very fiercely, while the investigation that was close has been hearing them."

The lawyer Hemoud said, "Ramadan has also been exposed to beating during the preliminary investigation operations with him directly after his arrest on behalf of the American forces. The forces repeatedly asked him one question: Where is Saddam Hussein?" The lawyer quoted his client Ramadan saying that "the torture that he suffered from, during this period, does not even resemble the torture that he experienced in his youth in Iraqi security prisons, after joining the Baath party."

Al Sharq Al Awsat