Incident: Sherzad Kamal Khalid detained

This month, according to a statement on the ACLU website, Sherzad Kamal Khalid will be detained at various facilities in Iraq. He will remain in detention for approximately two months. He will claim that while he was in detention, he was:

• severely beaten - kicked, punched, beaten while shackled, over periods lasting hours;
• forced, with other detainees, to run a gauntlet of soldiers who beat them with batons;
• threatened with sodomy;
• sexually humiliated;
• subjected to mock executions;
• deprived of sleep, and beaten severely when he started to fall asleep;
• deprived of food and water;
• denied access to a toilet, causing him to soil himself;
• forced to stand outside in extreme heat for several hours without food or water;

Khalid continues to suffer from stomach ulcers as a result of an untreated stomach infection suffered while in detention.

In November of 2005 The Washington Post will publish a further allegation of Khalid's that he was threatened with lions while held at a Presidential palace. This extraordinary claim may not be as far fetched as it first sounds, as it is known that detainees were held in and abused at at least one palace, and that Saddam's son Uday kept lions at his palaces.

An interview with Khalid for Nightline can be found here. It is also available as a podcast.