A Human Rights Watch report is likely to embarrass Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, before the elections on Sunday. His party has vowed to respect human rights.

Most of the abuses were recorded in interviews with detainees. Of 90 prisoners questioned between July and October last year, 72 claimed that they had been tortured or ill-treated, the 94-page dossier says. They claimed variously to have been beaten with cables, hosepipes and metal rods; slapped, kicked and punched; bound and suspended in the air for long periods; and subjected to electric shocks to the genitals, ears and other sensitive parts of the body. Some of the victims were children.

Dr Allawi’s Government “appears to be actively taking part, or is at least complicit, in these grave violations of fundamental human rights”, the report alleges.

“The people of Iraq were promised something better than this after the Government of Saddam Hussein fell,” Sarah Leah Whitson, head of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division, said. “Sadly, the Iraqi people continue to suffer from a Government that acts with impunity in its treatment of detainees.”

The Iraqi security forces were fighting a brutal insurgency, she said, “but international law is unambiguous on this point: no government can justify torture of detainees in the name of security”.

Ali Rashid Abbadi, 24, said that he had been arrested in Baghdad last July and taken to the Central Intelligence Directorate, where he was accused of belonging to Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr’s rebel al-Mahdi Army. “They poured cold water over me and applied electric shocks to my genitals,” he said. “I was also beaten up by several people with cables on my arms and back.”

Faisal, 15, from west of Baghdad, said that he had been arrested in July with other relatives accused of kidnapping a Lebanese national and was taken to the Interior Ministry. “During interrogation, they blindfolded me and tied my hands behind my back, and then they beat me with cables,” he said.

The security forces also appear to be ignoring basic procedures, such as obtaining arrest warrants or granting suspects defence counsel. Police often demand bribes to release suspects or to allow family visits.

Some of the most troubling claims suggest that the authorities are prepared to use the intelligence services against political rivals, as Saddam did.

The newly formed secret police, now called the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, are accused of illegally arresting scores of suspects, many of them belonging to Islamic political groups, some of which are running in the election.

American and British forces are accused of failing to stop the Iraqi authorities from mistreating prisoners. In one instance last June, soldiers of the Oregon National Guard did halt the abuse of detainees held by Iraqi police in al-Shaab district in Baghdad.

Captain Jarrell Southall, the only soldier who has come forward publicly about the abuses, said: “Prisoners were bound, blinded, gagged. Many had terrible bruises and burns. One room contained hoses, broken lamps (electric shock) and chemicals.”

When Lieutenant-Colonel Dan Hendrickson, their commander, radioed to his superiors, he was ordered to return the detainees to Iraqi custody.

The Iraqi Government had no comment on the report last night.

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