Between 11 and 12 June 2014, soldiers Mohamed Samir Damam Al Habib, Muntazer Amir Uday Al Tarbosh and Amir Abed Karim Katouf Al Bermani, left camp Speicher and like about 400 other soldiers, were arrested by governmental forces for having "deserted". As two years after their disappearance, the authorities have always denied their families' requests for information on their fate and whereabouts, on 21 June 2016, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent their cases to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), hoping that this UN mechanism can help locate them.

On 11 June 2014, following the order of his military commander, Al Habib left Speicher base with some of his comrades and reached Al Balad, a city located 115 km south of Tikrit. When his family later learned that after the capture of Speicher base by the IS, governmental forces carried out an incursion in the area and arrested about 400 Speicher base soldiers, they knew Al Habib was one of them. They even received through informal contacts a photo showing him with other Speicher base cadets inside a governmental secret prison.

On 12 June 2014, soldiers Al Tarbosh and Al Bermani both left camp Speicher. Al Tarbosh's family was then informed that he was subsequently arrested by the Golden Division, one of the most prominent sections of the Iraqi counter-terrorism units, during an incursion in the surroundings of Tikrit. In October 2014, in fact, his relatives were informed that he was allegedly detained in Al Kadhimiya Prison, in northern Baghdad.

Al Bermani's family last heard from him on 12 June 2014, when he called them to inform them he would leave Speicher base, according to his commander's order. His family later learned that Salahuddin military unit – a regional special unit set up by former Prime Minister Al Maliki –arrested him and transferred him to Al Taji military camp on 29 June 2014.

Nevertheless, when relatives of the three disappeared soldiers contacted the authorities to inquire about their sort, they were always faced with silence. In addition, in a high level conference held on 8 February 2015 in Baghdad and hosting, amongst others, members of the Parliament, the United Nations Special Representative for Iraq as well as the Minister of Human Rights, the authorities announced that they would release death certificates for all the soldiers deployed in Speicher base, causing indignation in several families of the disappeared, knowing that victims are instead being detained as suspected of "desertion".

"Subjecting to disappearance as a form of punishment those who left the base, and this following their commanders' orders, is scandalous," comments Rachid Mesli, Legal Director at Alkarama. "Instead of promising to provide death certificates for all Speicher base soldiers without even inquiring on the allegations raised by the families of the disappeared, as a State Party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPED), the Iraqi authorities have a legal obligation to ensure that all persons who were forcibly disappeared are searched and located without delay. The families of the victims deserve to know the truth about the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones."

Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly therefore sent the cases of Al Habib, Al Bermani and Al Tarbosh to the CED hoping the UN experts will be able to shed light on their fate.

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