Issam Awad was arrested on October 6, 2015 at his workplace – the Karkh Water Supply Scheme in Al Moshahda – by members of joint forces of the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Federal Police. He was arrested without a warrant together with a colleague. The two men were handcuffed, blindfolded and brought to an unknown location.

Awad’s colleague was released two months after the arrest. He reported having been held in a detention centre which he could not identify, since he was blindfolded at the moment of his arrest and release. He reported that the detention centre was overcrowded with poor health conditions, and that during the first week after their arrest, he and Awad were severely beaten, including with the use of cables.

Awad’s family lodged a complaint at the police station of Tarmiyah on October 11, 2015, and the Central Criminal Court on November 1, 2015, but to no avail. They were unable to find his name in the detainees’ register of the Central Criminal Court.