Sami Jaafar Abbas AlShaikh was a 21-year-old university student and accountant when he was first arrested by authorities during an ambush in Ma’ameer in January 2019 and again in December 2019. In both cases, Sami’s convictions were based upon weak evidence and false confessions extracted through torture. Since his arrests, Sami’s health has greatly deteriorated due to his contraction of COVID-19 and subsequent medical negligence on behalf of prison authorities. He is currently held in Jau Prison. 

On 29 January 2019, officers in civilian clothing and riot police surrounded and arrested Sami in the Ma’ameer industrial area without presenting an arrest warrant nor giving a reason for the arrest. From the moment of his arrest, officers beat and tortured Sami, passing by the fire station, the civil defense building, and finally reaching the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID). Sami arrived at the CID almost completely naked as his clothes had been torn from all the beating he was subjected to. 

For the first two days of his arrest, Sami was disappeared as authorities refused to disclose his location to his family and he was unable to contact them. For 14 days after his arrest, CID officers interrogated Sami without a lawyer and tortured him to extract a confession. The officers punched him, beat and kicked him in sensitive areas, forced him to stand for long periods of time, and threatened to assault his wife if he denied the charges made against him before the Public Prosecution Office (PPO). Sami confessed to the charges when officers threatened to bring in his wife.

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