Iraqi Blogger Jailed / Updates

From Raed’s blog, posted on July 16, 2005:

My mom called me today at 7 in the morning, shouting with happiness: “Your brother is okay!”. Niki and I were the last members of the family to know the “happy news”. My brother called my dad from the Iraqi mokhabarat’s jail to inform us he was alive; he said he was abducted by the mukhabarat men from his university. My dad called my mom and Majed, and they informed us then.

The feelings of joyfulness in our family now would give anyone the impression that my brother has won the lottery! My mom spent the morning planning my brother’s future, including the arrangements of his wedding party!

If your child or sibling vanishes for two days then calls from the secret service jail in any other place on earth, that would be considered a disaster and a violation of human rights…

In Iraq, however, it’s Happy News.

Because the other options include: To be tortured, executed, and thrown in garbage by SCIRI and their Badr brigades. To be held by the Iraqi police and left to choke to death in one of their cars. To be held by the US troops then disappear and be mistreated for months in one of their many prisons. To be kidnapped by one of the countless criminal gangs and cost your family some tens of millions of Iraqi Dinars and/or your life.

So now you can see why being held at the mukhabarat jail is such happy news!

My dad said that Khalid mentioned something about his writings or his blog. We’re not sure whether our blogs are the reason behind the abduction of my brother, but it’s one of the possible scenarios. In case if they were, we’ll stand for our political values of anti-violence, anti-occupation, pro-dialogue, pro-free speech, and all of the other honourable stands that my family has taken in our lifetime.

Our goal now is to ask the mokhabarat to take my brother to court and reveal what exactly he is being charged with (if anything).

7 Comments

psyche777 on July 21, 2005 at 11:24 am

Where did you hear he was freed? Last post on Raed’s site yesterday states

“Still waiting for news from Iraq about my detained brother.”

Dean Pajevic on July 21, 2005 at 12:05 pm

Bizarre. I went to Raed’s blog, and found that post from July 14!

RaedInTheMiddle
- Janet Strange on July 21, 2005 at 12:13 pm
  
  But the post above says that Khalid is being “held at the mukhabarat jail.” How is that “freed”?
Janet Strange on July 21, 2005 at 12:11 pm

I’m also wondering about this. When I first read Raed’s post that you excerpt (from last Thursday), I went looking for info about the “mukhabarat.” Who is it that is holding Khalid? Most of the US sources described the mukhabarat as Saddam’s secret service, but according to the Wikipedia “mukhabarat” is the term in Arabic that just means “intelligence agency.”

Last Sunday, he posted

On another note, my brother is spending his 6th night in jail. He’s just one of the thousands of people in Iraq who disappeared and ended up in one of the many jails and prisons around the country without a clear reason.

The number of U.S.-held prisoners in Iraq reached all-time record levels earlier in June and has since gone down slightly. The average prisoner total in June stood at 10,783. The number of Iraqis held in Iraq’s governmental and paramilitary jails is unidentified.

And later that day:

On another note, it seems that the new Iraqi courts don’t guarantee the right to lawyers: prisoners are neither offered the help of a public defender nor can they bring their own lawyers. News about my sibling is so confusing, but we’re expecting to know more tomorrow. There are more than ten thousand people in the US prisons in Iraq, and other thousands in Iraq’s governmental and paramilitary jails. Everyone deserves to have the right of a phone call to inform his family about his location and status after being arrested, everyone deserves the right of having a trial and knowing what he or she is charged with, and everyone deserves to have a lawyer for his trial.

Monday:

On a more personal note, we have had no news from Iraq. My heart and mind is with all the thousands of political prisoners and their terrified families around the country.

And his last post as psyche quotes above. I’m still very worried about Khalid and don’t see any sign of his being released soon.

Raed’s post from Tuesday about civilian deaths in Iraq is devastating. And take a look at the picture at the top of the post.
- Dean Pajevic on July 21, 2005 at 3:15 pm
  
  Oh strange … I just scanned the posts quickly and saw the post about good news, so I grabbed that.
  
  Thanks for checking more thoroughly.

psyche777 on July 21, 2005 at 1:19 pm

Perhaps susan misunderstood the “good news” and thought it meant he was free.

I’ve been following this too, there is a petition to demand he be released, while I’m not to sure on how well those types of things work, I signed it just incase….

Petition

psyche777 on July 21, 2005 at 1:23 pm

perhaps this would be a better link to the petition, since I don’t think anyone wants to be Lisa Renee – lol

Petition one more time

psyche777 on July 21, 2005 at 11:24 am

Where did you hear he was freed? Last post on Raed’s site yesterday states

“Still waiting for news from Iraq about my detained brother.”
- Dean Pajevic on July 21, 2005 at 12:05 pm
  
  Bizarre. I went to Raed’s blog, and found that post from July 14!
  
  RaedInTheMiddle
  - Janet Strange on July 21, 2005 at 12:13 pm
    
    But the post above says that Khalid is being “held at the mukhabarat jail.” How is that “freed”?
- Janet Strange on July 21, 2005 at 12:11 pm
  
  I’m also wondering about this. When I first read Raed’s post that you excerpt (from last Thursday), I went looking for info about the “mukhabarat.” Who is it that is holding Khalid? Most of the US sources described the mukhabarat as Saddam’s secret service, but according to the Wikipedia “mukhabarat” is the term in Arabic that just means “intelligence agency.”
  
  Last Sunday, he posted
  
  On another note, my brother is spending his 6th night in jail. He’s just one of the thousands of people in Iraq who disappeared and ended up in one of the many jails and prisons around the country without a clear reason.
  
  The number of U.S.-held prisoners in Iraq reached all-time record levels earlier in June and has since gone down slightly. The average prisoner total in June stood at 10,783. The number of Iraqis held in Iraq’s governmental and paramilitary jails is unidentified.
  
  And later that day:
  
  On another note, it seems that the new Iraqi courts don’t guarantee the right to lawyers: prisoners are neither offered the help of a public defender nor can they bring their own lawyers. News about my sibling is so confusing, but we’re expecting to know more tomorrow. There are more than ten thousand people in the US prisons in Iraq, and other thousands in Iraq’s governmental and paramilitary jails. Everyone deserves to have the right of a phone call to inform his family about his location and status after being arrested, everyone deserves the right of having a trial and knowing what he or she is charged with, and everyone deserves to have a lawyer for his trial.
  
  Monday:
  
  On a more personal note, we have had no news from Iraq. My heart and mind is with all the thousands of political prisoners and their terrified families around the country.
  
  And his last post as psyche quotes above. I’m still very worried about Khalid and don’t see any sign of his being released soon.
  
  Raed’s post from Tuesday about civilian deaths in Iraq is devastating. And take a look at the picture at the top of the post.
  - Dean Pajevic on July 21, 2005 at 3:15 pm
    
    Oh strange … I just scanned the posts quickly and saw the post about good news, so I grabbed that.
    
    Thanks for checking more thoroughly.
psyche777 on July 21, 2005 at 1:19 pm

Perhaps susan misunderstood the “good news” and thought it meant he was free.

I’ve been following this too, there is a petition to demand he be released, while I’m not to sure on how well those types of things work, I signed it just incase….

Petition
psyche777 on July 21, 2005 at 1:23 pm

perhaps this would be a better link to the petition, since I don’t think anyone wants to be Lisa Renee – lol

Petition one more time

Iraqi Blogger Jailed / Updates

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Dean Pajevic

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