How I escaped my life under ISIS in Mosul for Luxembourg

By Adam Walder

While the person concerned in this article was fine with his full name and personal details being published, at Wort.lu we took the decision not to use them and change the details. Added to that we have not revealed his precise location now in the Grand Duchy as a precaution. His escape is known to ISIS and indeed he has received threats of being “followed wherever he is” and being “executed” by them.

Othman used to live in the besieged city of Mosul in northern Iraq, currently occupied and ruled with an iron fist, by the terrorist group calling itself Islamic State or ISIS. This is his incredible and horrific story of how he somehow managed to escape the regime, Iraq, and find his way to Luxembourg where he is today.   

Son of a bank manager,  Othman has two brother and two sisters. He used to repair computers, but became bored of it and took a major career turn opening his own café in Mosul.

This was life before the invasion, which Othman describes as still having many problems but nothing compared to what was about to come with ISIS. “Every day the army came and took money and food, threatening to close the place if I didn’t accept this,” he began “so there were major problems before, but not like now.”

Othman also pointed out that his name is Sunni. Even back then he couldn’t travel far and certainly not to Baghdad some 500km south with all the militia checkpoints along the way of the various factions. No, Othman’s life was well and truly focused on Mosul.

And then everything changed in June 2014, in fact Othman specifically remembers June 9 when he first witnessed ISIS arrival, shocked that the army held up no resistance. “The army did not fight,” he exclaimed, “I saw this with my own eyes!”

ISIS takes control

The regime change was swift, and at first Othman was surprised to see not much changed. His café was known for being a popular lively social meeting place to enjoy coffee, tea, shisha, play billiards or card games, listen to music, chat on the phone, or meet friends. When ISIS first invaded, surprisingly, all this was still allowed. “Maybe these people were good!” Othman reflected on his feelings at the time.

But the status quo didn’t last long as ISIS soon showed their true colours and Othman’s café faced a ban on everything except coffee and tea. ISIS soldiers regularly burst into the establishment inspecting customers, checking their phones for photos and music stating that this was “haram” (forbidden). All games and smoking were certainly haram too.

Othman paused for the first time during the interview, and took a deep breath. It soon became apparent why, as he was about launch into the story of a key moment his life changed for the worse. “One evening friends of mine said they wanted to play a secret game of poker, like we used to, and I agreed. I locked the café door and we started playing in the back,” he began, “but a young boy looked through a small hole in the window, saw us playing and went to tell ISIS.”

“They told me this was a warning, next time they would cut off my head  

It wasn’t long before ISIS police, known as “Al Husbah” arrived smashing in the door pointing guns at the group. Othman explained how the focus turned on him as he was accused of “poisoning the minds” of his friends and “making them play poker.”

Without a pause or emotion, Othman explained the punishment he received for his so-called crime. “I was dragged out of the café and taken to a place where I received 60 lashes. I was whipped on my back. It was agony. For one and a half months I couldn’t move!”

Othman lost everything  after that incident, as ISIS then took the café from him. “They told me this was a warning, next time they would cut off my head.”

The citizens of Mosul were then hit with impossible new rules if they wanted to leave the city and were given two options. One required getting permission that could only be obtained from the head of ISIS himself, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In order to do this, a house and two cars had to be offered. The other method was to die as the cemetery is located outside the city. Residents became trapped. 

 Added to their suffering, phone sim cards were banned, meaning any communication was the outside world was cut. Landline phones and internet followed suit a short time later.

By the end of his period of being incapacitated, Othman had reached the decision; he must try and escape, but how? Even talking about escaping could lead to torture and even death. The whole population lived, as they do today, in fear and paranoia.

It took several months to pluck up the courage to eventually talk to someone Othman trusted. Escaping is extremely risky as any chance of leaving Mosul involves a first step of finding a willing ISIS member to bribe to get passed the Mosul checkpoint.

“Everyone else in the car had been killed  

A first attempt to escape ended in failure, but Othman will never forget the second time he tried to flee the grasp of ISIS and the city of Mosul.

He had found an ISIS smuggler and arranged a meeting point, as had several other people wishing to escape. “But I was five minutes late at the rendez-vous point” explained Othman. When he did turn up he was greeted by a horrific sight. “Everyone else in the car had been killed”, he stated, “I was lucky to be late. I ran away.”

It was at this point Othman became extremely scared and depressed and came to the grim conclusion that he could never leave Mosul.

However his hopes were raised once again when a neighbour and good friend came to him; “Othman, between us, if you want to escape Mosul, just tell me.” Othman of course confided that he wished to flee but was very afraid. The neighbour stated that it was 100% guaranteed but he would have to leave in five minutes but first he must change clothes and look as much like an ISIS sympathiser as possible.

Othman pinched his chin gesturing a long beard before side-tracking for a moment. “You must have a beard. If you don’t you are sent to a doctor who usually comes from England, Germany or Belgium. If you can’t grow a beard for medical reasons, you are given a paper and excused. If you can and have shaved, you are punished!”

How I escaped Mosul

Returning to his escape story, Othman explained that through his neighbour he paid a smuggler $1,600 and was driven by car to about 1 km before the checkpoint out of Mosul and told to walk to a petrol station 500m further down the road and buy diesel as a diversion and excuse to be near the checkpoint.

“I was followed by a man who I thought was from ISIS at first, but turned out to be another smuggler to help me,” explained Othman, “but then we were soon really followed by an ‘Al Usrah’ (ISIS army) soldier.”

Othman explained how he went to buy fuel in barrels, often the case in Iraq, as the ISIS soldier stood near to him following the transaction. “As he stood there I invented a whole story so he could hear me about buying barrels and that I would be waiting for my cousin to pick them up.” It was only when Othman handed over $50 in the fake transaction the soldier was convinced it was legitimate, and left.

Luckily for Othman and his is smuggler, this gave them a moment to continue the journey on foot without surveillance, towards the checkpoint, about another 500 metres away. Another group of people were walking ahead of them but as that group reached the checkpoint, ISIS soldiers began shouting at them. They appeared to ignore the soldiers who responded by attacking them.

The group was violently punched and threatened by the soldiers demanding their IDs with the checkpoint guards’ attention focused on the commotion.

Othman and his companion seized the opportunity to walk through the checkpoint and free from the clutches of ISIS controlled Mosul. Once again, luck was on Othman’s side.

However, they were still in ISIS territory and Othman’s terrible journey had only just begun.

A waiting taxi on the other side took Othman 78km down the road to Tal Afar via small inconspicuous routes and another to Sinjar, a further 50km away.

“I could feel the bullets hitting by my feet  

Beyond Iraq

Othman’s journey was a horrific one. Not once but twice he was conned by smugglers having reached the border of Syria, promising to take him further into the country but simply fled with his money. At one point, he seriously injured himself falling into a ditch. Being in Syria was no better either and while in Ar Raqqah he witnessed Russian air bombings and had to flee the city.

Othman also had to hide from ISIS soldiers, and when he reached the Turkish border was faced with border guards there shooting at him. “I could feel the bullets hitting by my feet,” he explained.

Needless to say, Othman thought he was going to die on several occasions while trying to reach the west.

His luck began to change when he reached Antakya and a bus company took pity on him and allowed him a free bus ticket to anywhere in the country. Othman chose Istanbul some 1,150km away.

“I arrived in Istanbul but I don’t know how long I spent there, dates and times meant nothing in my situation, it was a blur to me, I was totally exhausted,” sighed  Othman.

After several detours around Turkey and island-hopping by boat into Greece, as many immigrants before him, Othman finally landed on the Greek mainland, and it was here the decision to make Luxembourg his destination was made.

“While in Greece I met a woman who worked in a hotel and I often went to drink tea with her” reminisced Othman. “One day she asked me where I want to go. My reply was that I didn’t know just as long as it was as far away from Iraq as possible as I’ve suffered so much.”

“Go to Luxembourg and one day remember me!  

Othman then asked the woman where she thought he should go, which country is best? “She said Luxembourg, but I had never heard of the country. She told me there was a future there.”

When asked whether he would have a new life and a new home in Luxembourg, Othman explained that she replied “just go to Luxembourg and one day remember me!”

And so Othman set his sights on the Grand Duchy crossing Europe and entering the country via Germany in November 2015 with a short stay at the Luxexpo asylum seeker centre before being moved to another in Luxembourg.

 ISIS death threat letter

But Othman’s woes were far from over. Once ISIS learned of his escape from Mosul, a letter threatening to kill him was sent to him via his sister through the internet before it was cut in Mosul.

Wort.lu has obtained a copy of this letter and translated from Arabic it reads, “The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant declares execution on Othman for escaping the state of rule Nineveh (region of Iraq) without permission. He forgets that we will follow him wherever he is.”

Despite his desperate situation and Luxembourg authorities being in possession of the ISIS death threat letter, after a year Othman is still waiting for an interview for his refugee status. “I was promised an interview on 2nd October. When I went, I was told, ‘no sorry it is 8th October’, I went then and was told again, no sorry you should wait!”

While fellow asylum seekers around him are able to contact relatives, Othman has lost all contact with his family leaving him feeling lost and helpless.

“Maybe in two or three months I will go crazy, I still have no connection with my family because of ISIS, but I recently learned five of my friends were killed in Mosul.”

Instead Othman spends his time, day and night, scouring the news, his phone, the internet in the hope for any information he can find about his family. Understandably he spends most of his time worrying, doesn’t eat well, and has mind constantly wanders.

Still, he counts himself extremely lucky. “I can’t believe I got out of Mosul myself, so many people died before me, nobody believed that I could escape, but I left all proof of everything behind,” concluded  Othman.

It does seem sad that in a case such as Othman’s, Luxembourg has still not granted him an interview, let alone refugee status, one year after arriving in the country.