Australian held, tortured for 18 mos. in Kurdistan

The Australian newspaper reported the rather incredible emerging details of the story of Australian Ahmed Jamal, who according to his family disappeared 18 months ago during a trip to the Middle East to search for a wife. Since September 2004, he has apparently been in the custody of the Kurdish Intelligence Agency, the Asayesh.

Australian consular officials only met with Jamal 10 days ago and have confirmed that he was tortured during his year and-a-half in prison. According to The Australian, he is depressed, suffering memory loss and skin rashes, and is still being threatened by prison authorities.

It is unclear how or when he might be released from custody.

Jamal's brother was previously detained in Lebanon on terrorism-related charges. But there appears to be no legal pretext for Ahmed Jamal's continuing detention.

The Australian Foreign Ministry's lack of concern over Jamal has raised criticism from civil liberties groups, who claim that the case of Douglas Wood, the Australian engineer who was kidnapped in Iraq was given much more attention.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in Northern Iraq, remains largely autonomous from the rest of Iraq. Rumors have abounded of kidnappings in Northern Iraq and secret prisons in the cities of Arbil and Suleimaniyah.