Incident: Alazawi detained

According to an interview she will give to The Guardian in less than one year's time, today 39 year-old business woman Huda Alazawi will be detained by US forces at Abu Ghraib. Her detention will come after a blackmail attempt, in which an Iraqi informant demanded $10,000 or he would tell the US forces that she worked for the resistance.

During her detention, she claims that the following occurred.

• She was told that she would be tortured if she did not confess
• Her brother Ayad was brought in, and was "brutally sexually assaulted" before her
• She was hit such that she fell to the ground
• She was forced to remain standing for 12 hours
• Later, her brother Ayad was brought before her and her sister, and he was dead. He had blood on his legs, his knees, and on his forehead.
• She was deprived of sleep by drunk US soldiers.

Alazawi was in detention during the time that the Abu Ghraib abuses became known to the American public. She states that there was a substantial improvement in her conditions after that time.

Her brother Ayad's death certificate states that he died of "cardiac arrest of unknown etiology". Photographs of Ayad's corpse were shown to The Guardian, and they report that the corpse displayed wounds consistent with Alazawi's testimony. According to the report, the photographs "revealed extensive bruising to the chest and arms, and a severe head wound above the left eye".

Two of Alazawi's other brothers remain in Abu Ghraib.