Incident: Group of 5 Iraqi men arrested, beaten, tortured

A group of five Iraqi men are arrested in al-Karrade district of Baghdad and taken to Criminal Intelligence Headquarters by Iraqi police. They are accused of being in the Mahdi Army. Their stories will be included in a report entitled The New Iraq? Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody, which will be released by Human Rights Watch in six month's time.

One of them, Murtadha Mahdi claims the following incidents occurred:

• He was beaten with cables
• Cold water was poured on him and electrical wires were attached to his ears.

Another of them, Ali Rashid Abbadi, claims that the following incidents occurred:

• He was hit by police
• He was beaten with cables
• Cold water was poured on him and electrical wires were attached to his genitals and he was electrically shocked.
• They withheld his heart medication from him.
• He was eventually taken to the emergency ward because of increased blood pressure and difficulty breathing.

Others in their party had similar stories, and showed investigators recent scars to corroborate them.