Omar Ameen, an Iraqi refugee who came to the United States with his family, was accused by the Iraqi government of being an ISIS mastermind who murdered a police officer in Iraq in 2014. The charges were based on a series of alleged events that a judge eventually rules is “simply not plausible.” He was held in the Sacramento County Jail for over two years during extradition proceedings, separated from his wife and four children. Being sent back to Iraq would essentially be a death sentence.
I filmed with Omar’s family and in the Sacramento jail in the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, then the Vice team went on to Turkey and Iraq to uncover new evidence in Omar Ameen’s case.