International Shia News Agency

Attacked and Bitten By Dogs…Detainee Talib Ali: If I Showed You My Tortured Body, You’d Fall Apart

SHAFAQNA – Since the Jaw Prison events that took place on the 10th of last March, the family of detainee Talib Ali, who is sentenced to 50 years in prison, was able to visit him on Sunday (April 26, 2015).

As the families of other detainees, his family was astonished to see their son’s condition. Torture had changed his appearance. His skin was darker and he almost lost half of his weight. He was extremely exhausted. That’s how his family realized that all the reports about torture are true and not exaggerated.

“The effects of torture we saw on our son’s body are enough to prove what human rights activist Nabeel Rajab had said about Jaw Prison, over which he was arrested and now is being tried,” his parents stated.

Talib’s family asked him how he’s doing and so he replied: “What day of torture do you want me to talk about? What means of torture do you want me to speak of and what injury? Do you want me to talk about the dogs who were let loose to attack and bite me, or about my body which now resembles a sieve due to the great number of injuries I had sustained? Or do you want me to talk about the blood which clotted over my neck? If I showed you my body, you’d fall apart in front of me.”

Talib added that if he was to speak of the details of torture he was subjected to, he would need days to finish. He mentioned one of his most horrible nights, when he was taken from among all the detainees by the prison officers who chained his hands and feet and then began to brutally beat him from head to toe. He was viciously hit with batons and metal rods. None of the prisoners were able to sleep that night because of his loud screams that were heard across the yard and nearby block. He was taken to the hospital due the severe injuries he sustained from the brutal torturing. When the doctor saw him, he was shocked to see the awful condition he was in.

He also informed his family that the officer who questioned him tried to kill him. The officer put his hands around Talib’s neck and tried to break it after Talib refused to swear he wasn’t guilty of motivating the prisoners to protest that day.

Before the March 10, incident, Talib had been isolated since October 2014 from the rest of the detainees, as prison officials claim that the prisoners listen to him. When the Jaw Prison events took place, he was taken from that block he was isolated in and accused of stirring up the prisoners of block number (1).

Talib was also accused of teaching the detainees Taekwondo, since he had previous training in this martial art. In order to force him to confess to these false charges, members of security forces started to take turns in torturing him and when he refused to confess, he was questioned by the prison officers and the office of criminal investigations.

In the tents that were built in the Jaw Prison yard, where detainees are still being held since over a month and half ago, he is not treated like the rest of the detainees. No one is allowed to come near him or even talk to him. If someone does, he will be subject to brutal torture. Thus, prisoners tend to avoid talking to him. Once, one of the prisoners asked about him. Only a few minutes passed before he was brutally beaten.

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