Iraq Insists VP’s Dead Bodyguard Not Tortured
Claims by Iraq’s fugitive Sunni vice president that his bodyguard was tortured while in custody were denied on Thursday by authorities, who insisted he died of kidney failure.
Amir Sarbut Zaidan al-Batawi died earlier this month and his body was handed over to his family, with Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, wanted by Baghdad on terror charges, releasing photographs he said showed the 33-year-old married father-of-three was tortured.
A senior Iraqi general and a judicial spokesman, however, said Batawi died of kidney failure and other conditions after refusing treatment.
“He died because he had a serious disease in his kidney, and he refused to be tested and to be treated,” Lieutenant General Hassan al-Baydhani, chief of staff of Baghdad’s security command centre, told AFP on Thursday.
Asked about Hashemi’s claims of holding photographic evidence of Batawi suffering torture, Baydhani replied, “It is easy for Photoshop to show anything,” referring to a popular digital photo editing software.
Higher Judicial Council spokesman Abdelsattar Birakdar added that Batawi was regularly examined by doctors at multiple Baghdad hospitals and in the prison where he was being held.
Birakdar said investigators filmed Batawi confessing to criminal activity on January 14, but declined to give specifics, and said he was involved in no further inquiries afterwards.
“The deceased’s corpse was sent to the morgue for an autopsy to state the cause of death,” he said in a statement. “The initial autopsy showed the cause of death to be extreme diarrhea, reduction in blood pressure, and kidney failure.”