the custody of security agencies such as the Anti-Crime Directorate or Anti-Terrorism Directorate, or the General Intelligence branch of the Ministry of the Interior, where they were at risk of torture and other illtreatment and frequently denied contact with families and lawyers. Security forces and militias arrested alleged terrorism suspects without judicial warrant from their homes, checkpoints and IDP camps, failing to inform those taken or their relatives of any charges. Many were held in prolonged incommunicado detention, in some cases in conditions amounting to enforced disappearance, in facilities controlled by the Ministries of the Interior and Defence or secret detention centres, where they were interrogated by security officers without lawyers present. Thousands remained in detention without appearing before judicial authorities or being referred for trial. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Torture and other ill-treatment remained rife in prisons, detention centres controlled by the Ministries of the Interior and Defence, and militia-controlled facilities. The most frequently reported methods of torture used against detainees were beatings on the head and body with metal rods and cables, suspension in stress positions by the arms or legs, electric shocks and threats of rape of female relatives. Torture appeared to be carried out to extract “confessions”, obtain information and punish detainees. Several detainees died in custody as a result of torture. In October, Tribal Mobilization fighters subjected villagers from south of Mosul, suspected of links to IS, to beatings with metal cables, public humiliation and use of electric-shock weapons. UNFAIR TRIALS The criminal justice system remained deeply flawed and trials were systematically unfair. Defendants, in particular terrorism suspects, were routinely denied the rights to adequate defence, to not incriminate oneself or confess 198 guilt and to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. Courts continued to admit into evidence torture-tainted “confessions” without ordering investigations into defendants’ claims or referring them for forensic examination. Some of those convicted after unfair trials were sentenced to death. REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE More than 3.1 million people remained internally displaced across Iraq, sheltering with host communities or in IDP camps, informal settlements, and buildings under construction. Many were destitute and lived in dire conditions, while humanitarian agencies reported significant shortfalls in international funding. Thousands fled across the border to Syria. The Iraqi authorities and those of the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) imposed arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on the freedom of movement of Sunni Arab IDPs. Tens of thousands remained confined to camps with no access to the job market or essential services because they were without local sponsors and therefore unable to obtain the official permits required to enter cities. Tens of thousands of IDPs were able to return home to areas that government and allied forces recaptured from IS, including the cities of Ramadi and Falluja, after completing onerous security checks. However, tens of thousands of Sunni Arab IDPs from areas recaptured from IS in Babil, Diyala and Salah al-Din governorates were prevented from returning home through a mix of onerous bureaucratic procedures, and intimidation tactics by militias, including abductions, arbitrary detention and extrajudicial executions. Relatives of suspected IS fighters were barred from returning and some had their homes deliberately destroyed or appropriated. Peshmerga and other Kurdish security forces also prevented tens of thousands of Arab residents of KRG-controlled areas, displaced by the conflict, from returning home. Amnesty International Report 2016/17