On June 17, 2014, Rasoul Al Janabi and his brother Omar were at their parents’ house in Madain, Baghdad when they were arrested by a group of Intelligence forces from the 42nd Brigade of the 11th Division of the Iraqi Army. While Omar was released five days after the arrest,Rasoul was accused, alongside other people, of bombing of two cars in the village of Brijan, Madain. Rasoul was never released, and his fate and whereabouts remain unknown.
Upon the request of Al Janabi’s family, the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights sent a letter on December 15, 2014 to the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Judicial Council, asking them to clarify Al Janabi’s whereabouts. The Investigation Court of Madain additionally sent a letter on March 19, 2017 to the Office of the Inspector General at the Ministry of Defence in order to look into Al Janabi’s whereabouts.
On May 17, 2017, Al Janabi’s parents reported the disappearance of their son to the Government Coordination and Citizen Affairs Department of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers. More than two months later, on July 24, the Office of the Inspector General at the Ministry of Defence then sent a letter to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers explaining that Rasoul Al Janabi was supposed to be released with another detainee, as no charges were brought against them in relation to the car bombing incident.
Instead of being released, both Rasoul and the other detainee were asked to accompanya Brigadier General named “Sadiq” in his military car. As mentioned by the Ministry of defence, Sadiq then drove them to an unknown place, after which they have remained disappeared.
Brigadier General Sadiq is an officer in the intelligence department of the Iraqi Army. When he was questioned by an investigation team on where he had driven Al Janabi and the other detainee, he gave two contradicting answers: he first stated that he drove them to the headquarters of the 42nd Brigade of the Iraqi Army. He then stated that he drove them to the Federal Police. Brigadier General Sadiq did not provide his interrogators with his full name.
On November 16, 2017, a letter was sent by the Iraqi Military Intelligence Directorate to the Office of the Inspector General atthe Ministry of Interior, to look into Al Janabi’s whereabouts. On September 25, 2020, MENA Rights Group and the Iraqi War Crimes Documentation Center requested the urgent intervention of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.
