Baghdad , Iraq ( CNN ) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has disputed reports that accuse Iraq of torturing and abusing people in a secret prison . `` There are no secret prisons in Iraq at all , '' Al-Maliki said in a Monday interview with state-run Al-Iraqiya TV . Allegations of torture and abuse at the prison , named Muthanna , were first reported by The Los Angeles Times April 19 . Amnesty International has urged Iraqi officials to investigate the claims . Human Rights Watch released a report on the issue Tuesday , saying the detainees are routinely beaten , shocked and sodomized by their interrogators . Al-Maliki continued to deny that there was a secret prison and called the reports `` a smear campaign in which embassies and media organizations took part and it was perpetuated by Iraqi politicians because it serves their interests to say that there are secret prisons . '' The prime minister said the Muthanna facility was not secret , it was publicly known and had seven judges working there . He said there are a small number of cases of abuse in jails but he said that happens in all parts of the world . Al-Maliki said he knows that some members of parliament visited the facility and directed the inmates to make false accusations about torture and give themselves scars . The report by Human Rights Watch was based on interviews conducted with 42 prisoners who had been held at a secret facility in west Baghdad 's old Muthanna airport since late 2009 . The men were among 300 detainees who were transferred in recent weeks to another detention center after the existence of the Muthanna prison was revealed , Human Rights Watch said . Detainees interviewed by the human rights group this week said that while at the facility , they were handcuffed , blindfolded and hung upside down using two bars , one placed behind their calves and the other against their shins . They said they were then kicked and beaten with heavy cables by their interrogators , who also are said to have placed plastic bags over detainees ' heads to cut off their air supply . Detainees also described multiple incidents of alleged sexual abuse , the group said .
Human rights group conducted interviews with 42 men who 'd been held at secret prisons . Iraqi prime minister closed prison this month ; group says Iraqi army officers arrested . Closure came after Los Angeles Times reported on allegations of torture , abuse . Men said they were blindfolded , hung upside down , sexually abused .