This is the story of four youths, the eldest of whom was 13 years old, who visited a patient at the Women and Children Hospital in Diwaniyah province. The visit turned into a nightmare after they were arrested, with accusations levelled at them of burning down the hospital on January 8, 2024, and causing the death of four premature babies.

The fire at the Women and Children Hospital in Diwaniyah was extinguished. But fires are still burning in the hearts of the mothers who lost their children, and whose youth were arrested on charges of burning the hospital down. These fires are not yet out. 

A week after the hospital fire tragedy that shook Iraq in January, the mothers of four youth came out in protest. They raised handwritten signs that read: “Accusing kids of burning the hospital is untrue” and “Our kids are innocent.” Similar banners were also carried by brothers and friends of the detained youth. 

Mustafa Muhammad (13 years old), Ali Majed (13 years old), Ali Hassanein (12 years old), and Ali Latif (13 years old) never imagined that going to the hospital for a visit would become a horrific nightmare, ending with them in the prison of the Counter-Terrorism Service. That short trip turned into a long journey with arrest, torture, and threats. 

The fire is lit 

On January 8, 2024, the fire broke out. Saleh Al-Hasnawi, minister of health, announced that “The accident resulted in the death of four children due to suffocation.” The minister added that “investigative committees will now begin their work based on the Prime Minister’s directives to find the causes of the fire and hold those who were negligent accountable.” A few days later a fifth child died. 

At the hospital, the minister of health announced the form these committees will take: a security and intelligence committee to investigate the motives, a committee from the civil defence to find out the causes of the fire, and a third administrative committee from the Ministry of Health, headed by the Director General of the Inspection Department. “Within three days, the findings of the committees will be announced,” Hasnawi said. 

The fire was followed by administrative measures against the employees of the Ministry of Health in Diwaniyah, and some officials were suspended pending the announcement of the investigation results. The minister of health concluded his visit by thanking the security staff and the daily wage workers at the hospital, for their “magnanimity, courage, and zeal.” 

However, Maytham Al-Shahad, the former governor of Diwaniyah, announced in a press conference, held a week after the incident, that four people who had been accused of setting fire to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital would be arrested. 

Al-Shahad asserted that the fire was set intentionally. He added, “Our colleagues in the Intelligence Directorate and the Police put a lot of work in to arresting those involved within three days.” 

The governor said that the perpetrators “confessed to committing the crime, their statements were judicially confirmed, and the story was settled in terms of motive.” In the details included by the governor, the accused set fire to rubbish in the hospital, where there were more than 193 patients, in addition to the medical staff. 

Najah Al-Bayati, Diwaniyah Chief of Police, said at that same press conference that the Supreme Committee he led, which was formed by order of the governor, and following the directives of the Prime Minister, had succeeded in the task of arresting the culprits after collecting evidence from the police, national security, intelligence, and anti-terrorism agencies.   

However, none of the officials present at the press conference shared this evidence or the investigation report. 

Accusations without evidence or witnesses 
 

Several loopholes and documented occurrences raise doubts in the case of the “Four Diwaniyah Youth.” The investigation’s methods raise questions about the validity of the accusations made against the youth. This is the reason why Jummar contacted the families of the accused and their lawyers. The testimonies and documents revealed a story completely different from the one told by the governor and the police chief. The “perpetrators” that the governor described are in fact juveniles, two of whom were not there at the time the fire broke out in the hospital. 

The report, ‘Detection record and removal of evidence of the crime scene,’ which was conducted using forensic evidence one day following the incident, obtained by Jummar from the family of the child Mustafa Muhammad, stated that “the fire resulted from an electrical short circuit in the wires that came into contact with a pile of rubbish.” The presence of this rubbish was confirmed by the report as near the outside of the wall of neonatal unit No. 2. 

The forensic evidence team that issued its report and proved that the fire was the result of an electrical short circuit was arrested. Members of the team were imprisoned for three days. An investigation was opened against them in the Ministry of Interior, due to what the ministry called a leak of the forensic report. 

“A few days later, the hospital administration stated that what had happened was not an electrical short circuit. As a result, Mustafa and his three friends were arrested,” according to Durgham Ibrahim. Ibrahim was attorney appointed by the family of Mustafa Muhammad, two days after his arrest, to defend him in lawsuit filed against him by the state. 

When certain officers are entrusted with a task related to a crime, they pin it on anyone they can find, “even if the person is innocent, to get out from under that task. This is because keeping a case open against an unknown person means continuing work on the case, research and investigation,” said Ibrahim. “There are people who were arrested for stealing a bike, and had other crimes added on, so the officer could close those cases.” This is what appeared to have happened in the case of the Diwaniyah youth, given that “there is no evidence that these youth committed the crime,” according to the lawyer and parents’ testimonies. 

Ibrahim described how the youth were arrested. “After the arrest warrants were issued and the four youths were detained, they brought them to the counter-terrorism building.” This is a building that people are terrified of. 

The youth were not treated as juveniles, but rather as terrorists. This violates the amended Juvenile Welfare Law No. (76) of 1983, which requires the authorities to consider a young person’s age, the circumstances of their arrest, investigation, and place of detention. 

According to Durgham Ibrahim, the Juvenile Welfare Law prohibits the recording of young people’s final statements at the Anti-Terrorism Office or in the investigation court. Rather, fron the outset, the case must be referred to the Juvenile Court. This is the body that supervises the official recording of their statements so that their rights are preserved, in the presence of the members from the office. This was not what happened in the case above. 

The violation of the youths’ procedural rights did not stop there, as their lawyer was not present while the youths’ statements were recorded. This was also a violation. After reviewing the case, it became clear to Ibrahim that the investigation records were certified by a confession from the youth. However, the youths’ testimonies contained contradictions which indicated it was likely to have been extracted under torture and coercion. 

“One of them mentioned that he was in the restroom and heard a lighter being lit. The other said that the fire was caused by a piece of paper that was rolled up and thrown.” But Ibrahim pointed out that “the reality indicated that there was an electrical pole adjacent to the hospital and it was on the roof. A named employee was a witness to the incident.” 

Torture is what forced the youth to confess. Mustafa’s lawyer said, “I spoke with the youth, and they told me that they were subjected to torture and beatings, and that they were even left in an outdoor courtyard above the building of the Counter-Terrorism Office, in the extreme cold, and late at night.” Members of the Counter-Terrorism Service sprayed them with cold water, then forced them to be naked all night. 

The youth later confessed to Ibrahim that the people responsible for interrogating them told them what to say. If they did not repeat what they were told, they would be tortured again.  

“Before Mustafa appeared before the judge, his nose was broken from beatings and torture. The officer told him that, if you do not tell him what we told you, we will torture you,” the defence lawyer confirmed. He added to Jummar, “I went before the judge, and he told me that he sent for the investigations officer and made him swear that the defendants’ confession was true. The officer swore to that.” 

Ibrahim told the judge that his client Mustafa’s nose had been broken during his interrogation. The judge’s response was, “Why didn’t he tell me that?” The lawyer explained that the child was afraid of the officer’s threats before he appeared in front of the judge. 

The Mother’s Testimony 

Mustafa Muhammad’s mother, a teacher, told Jummar how she saw the officers whispering in Mustafa’s ear prior to him going before the judge. Later he told her that they said, “If you don’t confess, we will arrest your mother instead of you.” So, he told them, “I will confess.” 

“Mustafa told me that he was hung by his arms from the nighttime hours until 11 am and was also beaten and insulted.” Mustafa was afraid and called the officers and investigators “Uncle.” His mother said, “He is young and innocent and did not do what they wanted him to confess to.” 

Mustafa’s mother visited him in the juvenile prison which he was transferred to, with the others, from the Counter-Terrorism Service run prison where they had been detained. They were transferred there after they appeared before the judge. 

“Mama, I want to sleep in your arms. I lost my temper and couldn’t control myself and fainted.” Mustafa’s mother kept hearing what her child repeated: “Mama, I am innocent, I swear to God I am innocent. I didn’t do anything. O judge, rule justly. O judge, please, rule justly.” All this made her certain that her son was innocent. 

This was reinforced by the fact that many doctors and nurses have expressed their willingness to testify to exonerate the youth should the judge call on them to do so. The judge has not yet done so. Neither has the security administration, even though such testimony is essential in gathering evidence in a criminal case such as this. 

There is a growing impression that the investigation and case against the youth lacked integrity. This is given that the video footage being used in the lawsuit does not show the youth’s involvement in the fire but, rather, shows them joking around with each other in one of the hospital’s corridors and then leaving. Jummar was able to obtain a copy of the video footage. 

The absence of eyewitnesses who would testify that the youth set fire to the rubbish, as the authorities claimed in the lawsuit filed against them, also contributes to the youths’ potential acquittal. As evidence to the contrary, there is a video recording showing a fire breaking out in the rubbish heap in the presence of many patients outside the hospital building, the starting point of the tragedy, as documented in the forensic report. 

Testimony from inside the flames 

So, what is the side of the story that the judiciary and security authorities are burying and that refutes all charges against the youth, charges that have become a stand in for pressing charges against influential people involved in the hospital fire? The mother of Ali Latif, one of the accused youths, described the details of that day to Jummar. That day began with Ali and his friends visiting the hospital and ended with them in prison. 

“I have a son who is one year and three months old. He had a hernia operation at the Women and Children Hospital (in Diwaniyah). After my son Ali (12 years old), the accused, came home from school at one o’clock in the afternoon, his sister told him that I was in the hospital for his younger brother’s operation. 

When he heard that, he and his friend Ali Hassanein, also accused, went to the hospital. On the way, he ran into his father as he was leaving the hospital, who asked him to return home. But my son insisted on coming to the hospital and staying with me. When he entered the room, my sister and my eldest son were with me. I asked Ali (Latif): Why did you come, son? He said: Mama, I want to stay with you. The lobby was empty at the time.” 

Ali Latif’s mother went on to explain that while he was in the hospital, Ali received texts from his friends, Mustafa Muhammad and Ali Majed, who were also accused, asking him where he was. He told them that he was at the hospital with his mother, and they offered to come as a sign of support because it was the right thing to do. When they got to the hospital, Ali’s mother told them that there was no need for them to be here, but they insisted as and said, “This is what friends do.” 

The two boys apparently sat in the waiting room, until they said that they were going to get dinner at one of the nearby restaurants. Ali Latif and his friend Ali Hasenien accompanied them to the hospital exit. 

Half an hour after Mustafa and Ali left the hospital to get dinner, the fire broke out. “My son Ali told me verbatim: Mama, there was a fire in the hospital. I saw smoke and people were screaming” said Ali Latif’s mother.  

Before the fire, there was maintenance being done above the hall where they were sitting. When the nurse was informed about the maintenance noise and concerns that “The hall is going to cave in on us”, the nurse said, “No, this is standard maintenance. That’s why the ceiling is shaking.” 

Ali Latif’s mother explained further, “When the fire broke out, we ran out of the hospital. I, my sister, my eldest son, my son Ali Latif, and his friend Ali Majed, both accused. They were carrying my young child and his prescriptions with them. We sat in the street, and the governor came to the hospital. The governor’s security guards asked us why we were sitting in the street. I told them my infant son had not recovered from the anesthesia of the operation, but security guards told us we needed to go home. While we were talking with the governor’s guards, Mustafa Muhammad and Ali Majed came running and shouting, ‘Are you ok, auntie?’ I told them, ‘I’m fine.’ They had their dinner with them. After that we got into a taxi and went home, accompanied by my son Ali Latif and his friend Ali Hassanein. As for Ali Majed and Mustafa Muhammad, they followed us home with their dinner packed, which was a bottle of Pepsi, bread, and kebab.” 

The fire occurred in the neonatal unit, and the hospital was covered with highly flammable secondary roofs. Ali Latif and his friend were not present in the neonatal unit when the fire started. Their arrest was a shock to all, according to his mother.  

Jummar spoke with Mustafa Muhammad’s grandmother. When comparing her testimony with his mother’s and the mother of his friend Ali Latif, in addition to what the defence lawyer mentioned, Jummar noticed a strong overlap in the events and timings. All the accounts obtained confirm that Mustafa and his friend Ali Majed were not in the hospital at the time the fire broke out. 

When the defence team for the accused youth submitted a request to the judge to download the contents of the cameras of the maintenance room in the hospital, the judge rejected the request. Ibrahim insisted that if the cameras’ contents were revealed, it would prove that the youth had left the hospital half an hour before the fire. “It is the most important piece of evidence to prove their innocence, but as of yet we have no knowledge of what is on those cameras.” 

In the report submitted by a court social researcher about the character of the child, Mustafa Muhammad, the researcher stated that the juvenile “has a normal personality and good behavior,” and confirmed the youth’s testimony about them leaving the hospital before the fire occurred to buy dinner. 

Caption: Report of the social researcher regarding the case of the child Mustafa Muhammad. 

In the report’s conclusion, the author states that “the juvenile had no part in the hospital fire.” In his recommendation submitted to the court, the author requested “the juvenile’s release.” 

The report reinforced the request by detailing Mustafa’s family circumstances: “The social situation of the family is good. The juvenile lives with his parents, and they do not have any significant problems.” 

Behind the flames 

When sharing details of the story, Ibrahim mentioned some information he received from parties indicating that there was a dispute between a group of contractors over a bid for the hospital’s renovation. Ibrahim raised the possibility that this dispute was behind the fire’s outbreak. 

This information was also brought up by Nazem Al-Shibli, a member of the House of Representatives from Diwaniyah Province. In an interview with Al-Mada newspaper, he said, “The local government contracted an unspecialised and unqualified company, at a cost of more than three billion dinars (about two million three hundred thousand US dollars), and without checking the qualifications which the project required. The contract also lacked the presence or provision of professional safety supplies and allowed the accumulation of rubbish, which caused the hospital fire. That was in addition to the absence of a firefighting system at the time.” 

Al-Shibli added, “The challenge preceding the building’s restoration was to provide an alternative location for the hospital and evacuate it before starting the restoration. Therefore, it is necessary to hold accountable those negligent who were behind the death of five children and the injury of dozens.” 

Before the fire, the Women’s and Youth Hospital in Diwaniyah was the subject of controversy, due to several documented incidents of corruption. According to Minister of Parliament Bassem Al-Gharabi, a member of the Parliamentary Health Committee, this hospital was “buried and dilapidated.” There were many obstacles to the hospital’s maintenance operations, such as piles of rubbish and the presence, for example, of a broken fire nozzle for maintenance work. This problem was not dealt with, in addition to a malfunction of the water pipe in the emergency exit. Al-Gharabi also shared documentation of the embezzlement of large sums of money in the form of payments from the hospital, a month before the fire broke out. Some of the payments attributed to this embezzlement amounted to 87 million Iraqi dinars (just over 66 thousand US dollars), and 310 million Iraqi dinars (just over 236 thousand US dollars.) 

At the end of March 2023, eight months before the fire, the hospital was flooded by a rain shower which fell on Diwaniyah Province. Prior to that, in 2021, a major corruption scandal erupted at the Women’s and Youth Hospital and Akkad Hospital when the health authorities in Diwaniyah purchased two MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines for the amount of two billion 850 million dinars (just over 2.17 million US dollars), which is a greatly exaggerated price, according to Hoda Sajjad, Member of Parliament for Diwaniyah Province. “The real price of the device is not equal to 25 percent of this figure, i.e., a quarter of the amount and could be obtained from the finest international sources at that price.” Even at this high cost, it transpired that the devices did not even work. In the same year, the head of the maintenance department at Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital was caught for bribery. 

The case is pending…and with it the lives of the youth 

Despite the allegations of corruption, and the badly conducted investigations that did not respect the rights of juveniles, the defence team are now trying to question the truth of the statements that were confessed to during detention and torture. 

Defence lawyer Ibrahim said that he plans to request that the youths’ statements in juvenile court be rewritten, to “deny their confession” that was made under torture and coercion. “They will tell the judge about the torture they were subjected to, and their previous statements will be recorded at the request of the investigating officer.” 

Ibrahim, speaking to Jummar, has emphasised that if the Juvenile Court listened and responded to them, it will guarantee the rights of the youth, and will focus its work on presenting the recording of events at the headquarters of the Counter-Terrorism Service, since they were a clear violation. 

For the defence, the case relies heavily on transcribing what is on the cameras at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital inquiry office, but the contents of those cameras are still in the possession of forensic evidence. At the time of writing this story, and according to the defence lawyer, nothing has yet been transcribed. 

Currently, there are three families with personal rights who lost their children in the hospital fire. They have dropped their lawsuit against the detained youth. There is one family that is still adhering to the lawsuit but may give it up in the coming days, after it reviews its position on forensic evidence. 

According to the defence lawyer, the case of the four youths will be transferred from the Investigative Court in Diwaniyah Province to the Juvenile Court, but they still have not received the report on the discharge of the hospital information cameras. 

The youths’ families have filed a lawsuit against the security detachment that arrested them. The investigating officer, who recorded their statements and confessions under torture, and the lawsuit procedures are still ongoing. 

The videotape documenting the initial moments of the fire shows a lit projectile thrown onto a pile of rubbish which caused the fire. The video shows the scene from one side. There are no external cameras documenting who threw this lit projectile. 

In the youths’ testimony, they stated that they grabbed a piece of paper, “a hospital bus arrived, they lit it, and threw it onto the rubbish. But the video proves the opposite of their confession, as it shows a large flaming object, heavy, being thrown on the rubbish. It could have been a piece of cloth or a cardboard box, according to the defence lawyer. 

Awaiting their trial, the four youths and their families were living an abnormal life, both at home and in society at large. after they were released on bail of 25 million Iraqi dinars (just over 19,000 US dollars). They remain waiting for their case to be resolved and their innocence and childhood, which had turned into a nightmare, to be restored.