For those people who do get the coveted red cards, their six-month renewals provoke great anxiety. Because of the lack of any predictable procedure or normal outcome for renewing red cards, the ability to gain access to the bureaucracy to renew the card and what happens to the card at the point are matters of great uncertainty. The lack of transparency and fear are factors that in combination make the system prone to corruption and abuse. An 33-year-old Iraqi who was kidnapped and tortured for having a brother who worked as a translator for the Americans (his brother was killed) has had a red card for two years and five months, but expressed to Human Rights Watch his fear about going back for each renewal. “To renew the red card, a gay policeman said I would need to have sex with him. Now I need to have someone from GCR go with me when I renew my card.”287 287 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-15), Athens, May 27, 2008. 105 Human Rights Watch November 2008