Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Group: Iraq police torture Palestinian to death

(MaanImages/File)

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Iraqi police tortured a Palestinian detainee to death in a Baghdad jail, a Palestinian group in the country told Ma'an on Tuesday.

Speaking to Ma'an from Baghdad, Saad Khalil from the Society for Palestinian-Iraqi Brotherhood said Imad Abdul Salam Abu Rabee, 30, died on Saturday in a police detention center.

Rabee's family live in al-Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He was living with his wife and child in the Iraqi capital, where his brother was also killed last year.

Khalil said Palestinian refugees in Iraq have been targeted for sectarian reasons. International rights group Amnesty International says Iraqi forces use arbitrary detentions and torture to quell dissent.

Thousands of Palestinians have fled Iraq since the US invasion in 2003, although exact figures are unknown. Kahlil said 15,000 Palestinians currently live in Iraq. Before the US invasion, UNHCR estimated there were 34,000 Palestinians in Iraq.

Many Palestinians originally settled in Iraq after they were expelled from Mandate Palestine by Zionist forces in the 1948 war that saw the creation of Israel, while others arrived after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967.

Maan News Agency

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