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Horrors of Iraq prison torture continue
Kept in a squalid and overcrowded Baghdad prison cell for two months, Amjad al Dayawi says he was beaten with electrical cable, forced to smash his head against a wall and finally raped.
Such brutal interrogation practices were not uncommon under Saddam Hussein, but Dayawi was not one of the former dictator's victims. Instead, the 24-year- old is among a growing number who say they have been tortured by the security services in the new, democratic Iraq.
Dayawi was arrested more than a year ago on suspicion of being a militia fighter in Baghdad's Kadhamiya neighborhood. Most of his two months in detention, he said, was spent in a room with 70 other prisoners.
"The cell wasn't big enough for that many people," he recalled. "It was impossible to sleep, we weren't fed properly, sometimes there would be one meal a day. The toilet was overflowing and the prisoners were getting diseases. It was a difficult situation."
According to Dayawi, the prison guards routinely beat the inmates with cables, hitting them across the back and feet. Then, after the first week, his interrogation started.