MOSUL (Sputnik) – On the ground floor of the burned downed building, one can find an office of the religious police, while on the first floor, behind steel doors, are three cells where, according to local residents, up to 50 people were jailed at a time.
"For what did they arrest [people]? Somebody had trousers with wrong length, somebody’s wife went outside without a niqab, somebody was arrested for smoking, somebody – for criticism of IS [Daesh]," Mohammed Daud, one of the former prisoners, told a Sputnik correspondent.
Possible Execution for Criticism of Daesh Head
Any argument with Daesh terrorists, let alone criticism of their leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi could have potentially resulted in execution. Waad Nuri, 30, was sentenced to 20 lashes for an "insult and blasphemy against the caliph (the self-proclaimed title of Baghdadi)".
"I had a quarrel with one of the IS members, who wanted to take my drill. During the quarrel I said that Baghdadi was an agent of Iran and that they [Daesh] were propagating such a form of Islam, which allowed killing innocent Muslims," Nuri said.
Nuri described how later that same day, he was delivered to the Sharia court and then kept blindfolded for several days and before his sentence was finally carried out. The man was then beaten until unconsciousness, after which he was kept in a prison for one month. Though Nuri was later released, terrorists threatened to behead him in the event he spoke out against Baghdadi again.
Many Prisons Across Mosul
According to a police officer, Daesh terrorists organized dozens of detention facilities in residential houses, as there was not enough space in city prisons.
One such a house was owned by a 70-year-old mosque imam. Dressed in a dishdasha, a traditional Arabic robe, the man said that his house was taken only because his grandson had wanted to become a police officer before the city was seized by Daesh terrorists.
"My grandson was shot in his jaw, after that they took my house. They are fools, murders, criminals. They did everything they could against the Islam religion," he said.
Daesh Commander From Russia
Other local residents said that during the government’s forces offensive on Mosul, Daesh forces were headed by a man from Russia.
"He said that he was Russian," one of the local residents said. Another described the commander as a green-eyed man who had a distinctive accent when speaking in Arabic.
The "Russian" is said to have had unbridled power, with his unit mostly comprising of terrorists from other countries.
"He could tell anyone of them to blow himself up and they did it without any question. We were afraid of them. They called themselves Muhajiruns and said that they had come in order to die for jihad," Abu Salim, local resident, said.
During the district’s assault staged by the government troops, the "Russian" ordered local residents to keep the doors of their houses open so that the terrorists could move easily maneuver from one building to to another. In order to ensure obedience, the unnamed man threatened to immediately execute those who did not heed his command. Those who attempted to flee to the government forces were accused of apostasy and burned with their families.
The Daesh terror group took over Mosul in June 2014. The operation aimed at liberating the city from terrorists began in October 2016. The eastern part of the city was liberated by Iraqi and US-led coalition forces in late January. In February, the Iraqi forces began their operation to liberate western Mosul from Daesh.
Iraqi President Fuad Masum told Sputnik in March that the humanitarian situation in Mosul was catastrophic, but noted that it would not be "sensible" to leave the city in the hands of terrorists.
