Iraqi police officers confiscate ISIS suspects homes

Officers from the Iraqi forces have reportedly confiscated the houses of suspected Islamic State (IS) militants in the northern city of Mosul and surroundings, said the Human Rights Watch.

“Iraqi security officers are denying immediate relatives of suspected Islamic State (also known as ISIS) members security clearance to reclaim homes being occupied or to seek compensation, Human Rights Watch said today. Security forces have also destroyed or confiscated some properties,” reads a report by the HRW dated April 19.

“Such acts, based only on family relationships to ISIS suspects rather than individual security determinations, are a form of collective punishment,” the report stated.

“These families deserve the same protections that the Iraqi courts provide to all citizens,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Courts should be the guarantors against discrimination that will only further deepen sectarian divisions in the country and delay the needed reconciliation.”

Hamid al-Zerjawi, deputy National Security Service chief, told Human Rights Watch on April 17, 2018 that the families of suspects should not have trouble getting the security clearance based on their relatives’ status, but did not deny that this may be happening at the local level.

Source: Basnews