Command's Responsibility: Detainee Deaths in U.S. Custody in Iraq and Afghanistan

Mohammad Munim al-Izmerly

Mohammad Munim al-Izmerly, a 65-year-old Iraqi chemist, was detained at the Camp Cropper facility, where high-value detainees were kept, in April 2003; his family was allowed to visit him once. Within a few weeks of their visit in January 2004, al-Izmerly was dead. The only autopsy ever performed on the body was conducted by the Director of Baghdad Hospital’s Department of Forensics, Dr. Faik Amin Baker, at the request of al-Izmerly’s family. Dr. Baker found that al-Izmerly died from a “sudden hit to the back of his head,” and that the cause of the death was blunt trauma. According to Dr. Baker, al-Izmerly “died from a massive blow to the head.”

U.S. forces retained al-Izmerly’s body for 17 days after his death, and did not inform Army criminal investigators that al-Izmerly had died in U.S. custody until after his body was released. Al-Izmerly’s family only learned of his death after U.S. forces delivered his body to an Iraqi hospital, accompanied by a death certificate stating that al-Izmerly had died of a “sudden brainstem compression”; the certificate had no explanation of the compression’s cause. An initial, inconclusive investigation into the case only appears to have been reopened after press accounts of al-Izmerly’s death. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command records have not been publicly released, but according to published reports, the records list al-Izmerly’s death as of “undetermined cause” – because the body was released and no U.S. autopsy was performed.

Al-Izmerly’s family reportedly filed a wrongful death claim for $10,000, but the Army dismissed it, saying the family had presented no evidence of wrongdoing by U.S. personnel. The re-opened investigation into al-Izmerly’s death remains pending; to date, no charges have been brought. Human Rights First asked the Department of Defense on January 20 and 26, 2006 the status of the investigation and any prosecution in al-Izmerly’s case; as of February 10, we had received no response.

Source: Command's Responsibility: Detainee Deaths in U.S. Custody in Iraq and Afghanistan (2006)