Alkarama sent a communication to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on 15 May 2009, asking for an urgent intervention in the case of Alaa Al-Maliki with the Iraqi authorities. On 18 May 2009, Alkarama sent a communication to the Special Rapporteur on Torture based on information relating to the treatment he suffered. 

Alaa Al Maliki, born in 1971, lives in Baghdad. He was arrested by soldiers under the command of Colonel Fadel Al-Amran on 17 February 2009, while leading Mohammad Al-Dainy's security convoy away from Al-Dainy's office. Once handcuffed, he was transported in a military vehicle to his home. During the raid, soldiers destroyed furniture and having not found anything of interest, they mistreated his parents, especially his father. 

The military took Al-Maliki to an unknown location and since, his family has not received any information concerning his current whereabouts or condition. 

On 22 February 2009 during a special broadcast devoted to the alleged arrest of dangerous terrorists on Al-Iraqia public television, his family was surprised to see Al-Maliki with Jasem Ibrahim Ryad, who had also disappeared and for whom Alkarama sought the intervention of the Working Group on 13 May 2009. 

Both men appeared tired, drugged and visibly under pressure. They admitted belonging to a terrorist organization, headed by Mohammed Al Dainy. These "confessions" are intended to accuse him of plotting a "terrorist conspiracy". Al-Dainy, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, is heavily involved in research and documentation related to human rights violations committed by multinational and Iraqi forces. 

In addition, as a witness and himself a prisoner, Al-Dainy met Mr Al-Maliki in a military detention center in the Baghdad's Green Zone. He reported that al-Maliki suffered severe torture: On one occasion Al-Dainy remembers Al-Maliki being taken from his cell at 9h00 and then returning at 23h00 lying on a stretcher made of blankets. It would appear that Al-Maliki told Al-Dainy that he was forced to learn by heart the "confession" for the television broadcast. 

His family has taken all the possible steps to know his present location, however all in vain. So far, his detention has not been officially confirmed. 

This matter is clearly a case of enforced disappearance, and it calls upon both Alkarama and other mechanisms of the UN to urgently intervene with the Iraqi government authorities in the shortest possible time, in order that Al-Maliki be released or placed under the protection of the law.