BAGHDAD — Sheik Maher Sirhan says his interrogators tortured him with electric rods and demanded $50,000 in cash to free him from the Iraqi jail where he is being held on terrorism charges.
But the Sunni Arab paramilitary leader, who has worked closely with U.S. forces, says he is hanging tough.
"I said that I'm not giving you the money," Sirhan said in a phone conversation from his latest jail cell. "There is a government and coalition forces. Justice will release me, not you."
The accounts of Sirhan and two other prominent Sunni paramilitary leaders, one recently released and the other on the run, provide a window into the role that political disputes and corruption appear to be playing in at least some arrests as the American era in Iraq draws to a close, with this week's departure of most U.S. troops from the nation's cities.
An Iraqi government official who works on security issues said the problem of Iraqi forces jailing people for ulterior motives is a long-standing one.
"There are many cases of ransoms and deals," the official said, adding that some Sunni paramilitary leaders who have fought alongside American forces to eliminate such insurgent groups as Al Qaeda in Iraq have been jailed by Shiite Muslim-led security forces at least in part for purposes of extortion.
Two months ago, several senior interrogators at the Defense Ministry's Harthiya Detention Center were arrested for shaking down businessmen they had jailed, the official added.
Questions of collusion between corrupt security forces and judges who issue warrants are so great that Iraq's Supreme Judiciary Council ordered an inquiry into the matter this month, the official and a Western advisor to the Iraqi government confirmed.
The government official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said security forces are also dealing with credible reports of torture and of undisclosed or secret prisons.
Last month, a Defense Ministry delegation found more than 100 detainees held secretly by the Iraqi army in the city of Mosul, the official said, adding that 73 of them had been immediately picked back up by the Iraqi army after being released by the Americans.
Despite such cases, Iraqi lawmakers say the army and police are making strides in ridding their forces of corruption, human rights abuses and allegiance to political parties.
