Nizar Al Jabari is a former intelligence officer who was made redundant following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He disappeared near the Al Khayzaran checkpoint in Baghdad on January 22, 2020, around 1.30 p.m. When his family last contacted him on his mobile, he had just gone through the Al Khayzaran checkpoint in Baghdad on his way home. The policemen who were stationed at the checkpoint later found his car abandoned about one kilometre away, prompting them to alert the Iraqi Directorate for Combating Explosives. After examining Al Jabari’s vehicle, they did not find an explosive device.
On the day of Al Jabari’s abduction, his family reported his disappearance at the Saydiyah police station in Baghdad. The following day, on January 23, 2020, they enquired about his fate and whereabouts with the Iraqi National Security Service, the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service, at the Baghdad Airport prison and the Muthana Airport Prison, but to no avail.
The family also went to the detention centre run by the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU), but they were not able to obtain information about the fate and whereabouts of Al Jabari. When they reached out to the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS), they were told that bystanders had witnessed Al Jabari being abducted by unidentified individuals the day before. According to the witnesses, they were wearing civilian clothes and were driving two Toyota cars that did not display any license plates.
On March 31, 2020, Al Jabari’s family was informally informed that the PMU were detaining him in one of their facilities in Baghdad. It is presumed that they are holding him for having expressed support for the anti-government protests, which started in October 2019.
On April 2, 2020, MENA Rights Group requested the urgent intervention of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances. The authorities have yet to clarify the fate and whereabouts of Al Jabari.