Al-Khazali warns of the resurgence of "Saddam’s Police State"

Shafaq News/ The Secretary-General for Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq movement, Qais al-Khazali, condemned the death of the young man, Hisham Muhammad, in the Anti-Crime Services headquarters in Basra in mysterious circumstances.

Al-Khazali tweeted on Thursday, "death of torture by security services crimes is a dangerous phenomenon that has been expanding recently, the last of which is the killing of the young Basra fellow Hisham Muhammad."

"These crimes are an indicator of converting to a police state and the return of the reppressive methods of the former regime; a matter we have warned of before."

"An investigation must be carried out, with the involvement of the Commission for Human Rights and the Parliament's Human Rights Committee, and the criminals must be exposed and punished," he continued, "we are waiting for the results as soon as possible before we take another position."

A Citizen dies in A citizen died yesterday, Tuesday, in custody in Basra after being detained overnight by security forces.

Attorney Saleem Salem al-Khuzaei told Shafaq News Agency that a relative of him, Hisham al-Khozaei, was arrested by the Anti-Crime Department at a checkpoint in the northern entrance of Basra.

The lawyer said that the security forces mistakenly arrested Hisham while pursuing a wanted person with the same name.

"Hisham passed away yesterday, Tuesday, from the gravity of torture he was put through during investigations to extract a confession for a crime he did not commit."

The family of the victim organized a demonstration to demand the circumstances of the demise of Hisham and demanded a transparent investigation into the incident.

In a clarification issued earlier today, the media office of the Basra Police Police department said that the deceased was wanted in accordance with Article 406 of the Penal code for being a suspect in a homicide, refuting social media allegations on "Names similarity".

"The defendant was released on July 27, 2020, after recording his statements, and he was handed over to his family," Basra Police said, "The Basra Governorate Police Directorate is closely following the results of the autopsy from the forensic medicine department on the causes of death. Legal measures will be taken against the negligent."