- At the beginning of April 2003, the USA has asked Britain to hand over
all the Iraqi prisoners under their control. This created an embarrassment
to the British cabinet ministers because, according to the British law, it
is illegal to transfer prisoners for trial or imprisonment to any country
where the death penalty still exists. Moreover the Americans have already
said that they would separate the ordinary soldiers who would be treated according
to the Geneva Convention from the members of the militia who could be sent
to Guantanamo, or held indefinitely in prison without trial or access to a
lawyer.
- The Red Cross visited the Abu Ghraib prison in early June and counted 3,291
detainees (including three women and 22 boys under 18). This is half the amount
(6,527) found in March. Some have been freed but some other have only been
moved to other prisons in Iraq and the Red Cross was not given all the information
of the number of prisoners released or moved.
- On July 20, 2003, the long detention (some since already 3 months) of Iraqi
scientists is turning into a human rights row and is reminiscent of the old
regime. America wants to find proof that Iraq was engaged in the production,
or had active research programmes, of weapons of mass destruction. As the
search is becoming more and more frustrating they have arrested many scientists
and officials (between 30 and 40) to interrogate them at length. The Red cross
asked many times to be able to visit them but without success. They are believed
to be kept in solitary cells and in tents in the US base at Baghdad airport.
This looks more and more like a second Guantanamo Bay concentration camp.
Who wants the American brand of freedom?
- On January 6, 2004, the USA said that they would free 506 Iraqi prisoners
held in Iraq as a goodwill gesture. At the same time they offered bounties
for 30 more Iraqis they want to arrest. The USA detains about 12,800 Iraqis
most of them held without charge and kept in undisclosed locations without
access to lawyers or their families. Guantanamo Bay exists in Iraq too!! Nice
liberators!
- On January 8, 2004, about 500 Iraqi detainees should have been released
from Abu Ghraib prison but it did not take place. Relatives waiting for them
were quite angry, as most had not heard anything from the detainees for months.
About 100 other prisoners, not part of the Amnesty programme, were released.
- On July 7, 2004, we were told that only 90 (less than 2%) of the more than
5,700 people in custody in Iraq as security risks are foreign fighters, a
figure that suggests the Bush administration may have overstated the role
of outside militants in the country. There are foreign militants such as the
Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the Jama'at al-Tawhid and
Jihad, which has claimed several suicide bombings, assassinations of Iraqi
officials and the kidnapping and beheadings of a South Korean and an American
hostage. Of the 90 foreign captives, about half are from Syria and others
are from Arab countries including Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
- On Wednesday September 23, 2004, Iraq's justice ministry says one of two
female scientists held in US custody will be released on Thursday. It denied
any link with the demands of militants for the release of all Iraqi women
held in US-run prisons, without naming names. The US says that it is only
holding two women prisoners, and that it has no knowledge of any plan to release
them. The woman who is to be expected to be released is Rihab Rashid Taha.
The second woman, Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, "may be released soon"
the minister said. Ms Ammash, a biotech researcher known as Mrs Anthrax and
Chemical Sally, was on the US military's list of the 55 most-wanted members
of Saddam Hussein's regime.
- On October 25, 2004, the Bush administration has decided that some non-Iraqi
prisoners captured in Iraq are not covered by the Geneva conventions. In clear
this means that these prisoners could be treated as those captured in Afghanistan,
Pakistan, etc. and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
- On November 26, 2004, we were told that the number of Iraqis kept in prison
by the US troops has doubled from about 4,000 to more than 8,000! Abu Ghraib
is full again!
- On December 9, 2004, the US released 114 Iraqi detainees from the Abu Ghraib
and Camp Bucca prisons in Iraq.
- On January 1, 2005, we were told that Dr Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, one of
the few women close to Saddam Hussein known also as "Mrs Anthrax"
for her participation in the Iraqi biological weapon programme, has cancer
and is dying in US custody.
- On January 21, 2005, we were told that all major US prisons in Iraq are
almost full. The number of prisoners is the highest since March 2004, about
7,900 detainees (persons suspected of participating in the insurgency or threatening
Iraq's security).
- On January 31, 2005, US guards shot dead four Iraqi prisoners and wounded
six others during a riot at "Camp Bucca" prison near Umm Qasr in
southern Iraq. The riot started after a search for goods contrabanded in the
prison. An inquiry will take place.
- US authorities have released more than 300 inmates from Abu Ghraib prison
on Sunday February 6, 2005; the number set free this year amount to 800. It
is expected more prisoners to be freed in the coming weeks. More than 8,000
people are still being held at facilities in Iraq, 1,000 of them with charges
pending against them in Iraq's central criminal court. The rest are due to
have their status reviewed every 90-120 days.
- On March 11, 2005, we were told that children held by the United States
army at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison included one boy who appeared to be only
about eight years old. "He told me he was almost 12," Brigadier
General Janis Karpinski told officials investigating prisoner abuse at Abu
Ghraib. "He told me his brother was there with him, but he really wanted
to see his mother, could he please call his mother. He was crying." Military
officials have previously acknowledged that some juvenile prisoners had been
held at Abu Ghraib.
- On March 12, 2005, the family of a British student being held by US forces
in Iraq are calling for him to be handed over to the UK. Mobeen Munef was
picked-up on 7 December last year in Ramadi and is accused of involvement
with a gunrunning gang. They want his trial to take place in the UK, but the
Foreign Office says it is a matter for Iraqi authorities.
- On March 25, 2005, US military foiled a massive escape attempt by detainees
at a prison camp in southern Iraq. Military officials said they found two
large tunnels under Camp Bucca, which houses nearly 6,000 detainees. The tunnels
were almost complete but no prisoners escaped.
- On April 10, 2005, we were told that US and Iraqi forces are holding a record
17 000 men and women -most without being formally charged- and those in Iraqi-controlled
jails live often in deplorable conditions. About two-thirds are locked up
as "security detainees" without any formal charges in US-run facilities.
The rest are incarcerated in Iraqi-run jails in conditions that fall well
below any international standard and are in dire need of reform.
- On April 15, 2005, prisoners at Iraq's largest US-run jail have rioted.
At least 12 people at Camp Bucca jail were hurt after the murder of a prisoner
sparked a mass brawl. The fighting at Camp Bucca, near the southeastern Iraqi
port of Umm Qasr, was not directed at US guards or prison staff; it occurred
when a fight broke out between inmates after the murder of a man inside the
compound. The US holds 6,000 mainly Iraqi detainees at Camp Bucca.
- Eleven detainees escaped Saturday April 16, 2005, from the US military's
largest detention centre in Iraq, Camp Bucca. Ten were later captured. The
10 were to be held by Iraqi police until they could be sent back to Camp Bucca,
in southeastern Iraq. One of the escapees said the group fled through a hole
in the fence.
- Thousands of people are detained in Iraq without due process in apparent
violation of international law, the United Nations said on Wednesday June
8, 2005, adding that 6,000 of the country's 10,000 prisoners were in the hands
of the US military. In Iraq, "one of the major human rights challenges
remains the detention of thousands of persons without due process," Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said in a report to the 15-nation UN Security Council. A Security
Council resolution adopted a year ago ending the US-led occupation of Iraq
let the US military keep taking and holding prisoners even after the June
2004 handover of power to Iraqis, in apparent contradiction of the Geneva
conventions.
- On June 27, 2005, the US military said it plans to expand its prisons across
Iraq to hold as many as 16,000 detainees, as the relentless insurgency shows
no sign of letup one year after the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqi authorities.
The prison population at three military complexes throughout the country -Abu
Ghraib, Camp Bucca and Camp Cropper- has nearly doubled from 5,435 in June
2004 to 10,002 now. Some 400 non-Iraqis are among the inmates.
- The Pentagon has confirmed on July 7, 2005, that five US citizens are being
held in Iraq on suspicion of having links to insurgents or other criminal
activity. The detainees have not been charged, and have not had access to
a lawyer. A Pentagon spokesman declined to release their names. One was identified
by his family as Cyrus Kar, an Iranian-US filmmaker and US navy veteran. A
US human rights group is suing the US government for his release. The US spokesman
said he had been found in a car that was also carrying several dozen washing
machine timers - components that can be used in making bombs. Officials said
he was arrested with a cameraman and a taxi driver.
- Two Yemeni men, Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah and Salah Nasser Salim Ali,
claim they were held in secret, underground US jails for more than 18 months
without being charged, Amnesty International has said on August 4, 2005. The
case is part of a "much broader picture" in which the US holds prisoners
at secret locations. In the report, Amnesty has urged the US to reveal where
its alleged secret detention facilities are, stop using them and name the
detainees held there. Mr Muhammad says he was arrested in 2003 in Jordan,
while Mr Salah says he was detained in Indonesia the same year and later flown
to Jordan. Both say they were tortured for four days by Jordanian intelligence
services. Alleged methods include being beaten on the feet while bound and
suspended upside-down. One of the men claims he was threatened with sexual
abuse and electric shocks.
- On August 17, 2005, we were told that the 82nd Airborne Division is sending
about 700 soldiers to Iraq to provide extra security for detainees, whose
numbers have doubled over the past year, officials said Wednesday. Pentagon
officials said that the soldiers are needed to augment security for detainee
operations. There currently are three main detention centres in Iraq _-Abu
Ghraib, Camp Bucca and Camp Cropper. Another, called Fort Suse, is being built
to accommodate a prisoner population that has expanded rapidly as more suspected
insurgents are captured. Venable said the number of detainees in Iraq has
grown from 5,400 in September 2004 to about 10,800 today.
- The US military has announced on August 27, 2005, the release of 1,000 inmates
from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. They refused to say whether the decision
to let the prisoners go is related to the talks over the constitution.
- On November 16, 2005, it became clear that among the 173 prisoners liberated
a few days ago there were members of all Iraqi sects -including Shiite, Kurds
and Turkmen- and not only Sunni as believed until now. Four Iraqi policemen
were also badly beaten by Interior Ministry commandos.
- The U.S. led coalition forces in Iraq and the Iraqi government released
238 detainees today ahead of the December 15 parliamentary elections on December
10, 2005. More than 200 detainees were also released on December 4, comes
as an insurgent group has threatened to kill four kidnapped Christian peace
activists unless all prisoners in the country are freed. The detainees were
released from the Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca prison facilities.
- The U.S. ambassador said Tuesday December 13, 2005, the total number of
abused prisoners found so far in jails run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry
came to about 120. The statement by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad reinforced
Sunni Arab claims of mistreatment by security forces a major issue among Sunnis
in the election campaign.
- On Decemer22, 2005, we were told that the top officials from Saddam Hussein's
regime liberated without charges a few days ago were under American protection.
Among them there are two women, Dr Rihan Taha (Dr Germ) and Huda Salih Mahdi
Ammash (Mrs Anthrax.)
- On December 24, 2005, the general in charge of the American-run prison in
Iraq, Gardner, said that he would not transfer the prisons or the prisoners
to Iraqi Jailers. He does not trust them to treat the prisoners decently,
as the Americans do! And what about Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, ... Are we
supposed to say that we believe that the Americans behave properly?
- On December 28, 2005, there was a revolt in an Iraq prison in northern Baghdad.
Eight people were killed and five prisoners and a US soldier wounded. It is
not clear what happened yet. The prisoners were not able to escape.
- The US released 420 Iraqi detainees on January 26, 2006, including five
women. The US authorities said that this has nothing to do with the Jill Carroll's
kidnappers request to the USA to release all Iraqi women prisoners in exchange
of her life.
- The US military released about 390 more detainees in Iraq on Monday February
27, 2006, after a review committee found no reason to hold the men. The releases
were recommended by a panel consisting of U.S. and Iraqi officials from the
ministries of human rights, justice and interior.
- Some 15,000 detainees are being held in Iraq by government ministries in
violation of Iraqi law, and nearly as many are being held by US-led multinational
forces, a senior UN official said Friday April 21, 2006. Only the country's
justice ministry is permitted to hold detainees for longer than 72 hours most
Iraqi-held detainees are under the control of other government officials,
naming Iraq's interior and defence ministries in particular. He said the 14,222
detainees being held by multinational forces in Iraq at the end of February
for ``imperative reasons of security'' also is ``way too high.'' The United
States said in February it was holding nearly 14,390 detainees at four major
prisons including Abu Ghraib. The figure did not include people picked up
and held at local jails for investigation.
- Iraqi and US authorities freed 495 prisoners from US facilities on Saturday
July 1, 2006, completing a mass release of 2,500 prisoners announced by the
prime minister earlier this month as part of his national reconciliation efforts.
- The US military released about 1,400 Iraqi detainees so far to mark the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, after first making each take a pledge not to attack US or Iraqi forces, a US general said on Wednesday October 10, 2007. The vast majority of the 25,000 detainees held by US forces are Sunni Arabs accused of involvement in the insurgency against the Shiite-led government and American troops. The programme of releasing about 50 detainees a day would likely continue after Ramadan ended this week.
- The International Committee of the Red Cross said on December 7, 2007, it has carried out its first visits to detainees held by Iraq. Red Cross delegates visited prisoners held near Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish north of Iraq in October.
- A number of mortars hit a prison in Baghdad on December 10, 2007, killing
at least seven inmates.
About 20 others, including several policemen, were injured in the incident.
- The US military in Iraq says it will release Associated Press photographer
Bilal Hussein on Wednesday April 16, 2008, after two years in detention. He
was detained in western Anbar province on suspicion of working with insurgents.
He has always denied any improper links with insurgents and says he was doing
his job as a journalist. The US military's decision comes after an Iraqi judicial
panel ordered him to be released under an amnesty law.
- On April 18, 2008, US commanders in Iraq have begun releasing thousands
of detainees and expect to free more than half of the 23,000 held by American
forces.
- The trial of Iraqi Deputy PM Tariq Aziz over the deaths of a group of merchants
in 1992 has opened in Baghdad on April 28, 2008. Mr Aziz, along with seven
other former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, is accused of involvement
in the execution of about 40 people after speedy trials. The merchants were
accused of hiking food prices at a time when Iraq was under international
sanctions. One of the co-accused is Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical
Ali". He is already on death row.
- On July 1, 2008, four Iraqi men are suing US military contractors for torturing them while they were detained at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The men, who were all released without charge, have brought separate lawsuits in four US courts. One of the men said he was beaten, threatened with dogs and given electric shocks during four years at the prison. CACI International, one of two companies named in the lawsuits, dismissed the claims as "baseless". Three civilians, all said to be former employees of the two contractors, CACI and L-3 Communications Corp, have also been named in the cases. Adel Nakhla of Maryland, Timothy Dugan of Ohio and Daniel Johnson of Seattle are accused of taking part in abuses during interrogations.
- On August 1, 2008, we were told that US forces in Iraq have released more
than 10,000 detainees during 2008 -more than they set free in the whole of
2007 (more than 8,900). The US military said it was seeking to transfer control
of jails to Iraqi authorities. Some 21,000 Iraqis are still being detained
down from a peak of 26,000 a year ago. The US says its commanders are authorised
to hold any individual until they are not deemed a threat. Officials said
the average length of detention currently stands at 330 days.
More than 8,900 detainees were freed during 2007, the US said.
- Iraq will reopen the notorious Abu Ghraib prison next month, but it will
have a new name. The announcement comes as the US military has begun handing
over detainees in its custody to the Iraqis under a new security agreement.
The renovated facility will be called Baghdad's Central Prison because the
previous name has left a "bitter feeling inside Iraqis' hearts."
The prison will house 3,500 inmates when it reopens in mid-February and will
have a capacity for about 15,000 by the end of this year.
- Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison which became notorious for detainee abuse by US forces in 2004, is being officially re-opened in a new incarnation on February 21, 2009. It has been handed over to the Iraqis and renamed Baghdad Central Prison. The site has been extensively renovated, with upgraded facilities and amenities, including a hospital, rest rooms and visiting rooms. Work is continuing on the prison, which will eventually be the city's main jail, holding about 12,000 inmates. Initially, only one of its four sections will be used. There are already about 300 prisoners there to test it out and, once the prison has been officially inaugurated, that figure will rise to 3,500.
- On June 24, 2009, we were told of allegations of abuse and neglect at a US detention facility in Afghanistan. Former detainees said they were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs at the Bagram military base. The Pentagon has denied the charges and insisted that all inmates in the facility are treated humanely. The detainees were held at times between 2002 and 2008 and they were all accused of belonging to or helping al-Qaeda or the Taliban. None were charged with any offence or put on trial; some even received apologies when they were released.
- On August 23, 2009, the US military began notifying the Red Cross of the identities of terror suspects being held at secret camps in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Red Cross, which has lobbied the Pentagon for years to give its staff access to all detention facilities, declined to confirm the changes. The policy reportedly took effect this month with no public announcement.
- Sixteen al-Qaida-affiliated prisoners, including five sentenced to death, escaped from a prison in Tikrit City, the capital of Salahudin province we were told on Thursday September 24, 2009. The 16 prisoners affiliated to al-Qaida in Iraq network broke through a ventilation duct in the prison located in central Tikrit on Wednesday. One of the five prisoners sentenced to death has been re-captured by the Iraqi police on Thursday.
- Five men who escaped from an Iraqi prison have been recaptured as of September 26, 2009, as police detain 100 staff for questioning about the break-out. The large number of escapees raised suspicions that prison staff had involved in some way. Some of the escapees were al-Qaeda members sentenced to death.
- The Iraqi government has released 147 prisoners, affiliated to a Shiite insurgent group and charged with abduction of five Britons, following talks between the two sides we were told on Monday September 28, 2009.
- The Iraqi security forces recaptured the last of the five jail breakers awaiting execution, nearly a week after they escaped from a prison in Tikrit City, capital of Salahudin province, we were told on Tuesday September 29, 2009. The recapture brings the number of re-detained al-Qaida-affiliated jail breakers to nine out of 16, seven others were still on the run.
- On January 16, 2010 the American military released the names of 645 detainees
held at the main detention centre at Bagram Air Base.
- On February 10, 2010, American forces in Iraq have released an Iraqi freelance
photographer held in detention for 17 months without charge. Ibrahim Jassam
Mohammed, who worked for Reuters, was arrested in September 2008 in a dawn
raid on his home. The US said the photographer was a "security threat",
but all evidence against him was classified secret. An Iraqi court had ruled
in December 2008 that there was no case against him and that he must be released,
but the US military refused.
- Twenty-three suspected insurgents escaped Friday April 2, 2010, from a detention
centre in the city of Mosul by digging a hole in the wall and climbing through.
Guards discovered the escape from al-Ghazlani Detention Centre when they entered
the men's cell to distribute lunch at noon.
- Iraqi authorities have closed down a secret prison where over 400 mainly
Sunni prisoners were held without trial, and arrested three officers of the
military unit that ran it we were told on Friday April 23, 2010. The unit
that operated the detention centre reported directly to the office of Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
- The U.S. military handed over its last prison in Iraq on Thursday July 15, 2010, ending an ignominious chapter of the 2003 U.S. invasion that saw thousands detained without charge and triggered outrage after disclosures of abuse. At a ceremony in a hangar at Camp Cropper detention centre near Baghdad airport, U.S. military officials gave their Iraqi counterparts a giant, symbolic key and said they were confident no prisoner maltreatment would occur under Iraqi supervision. They also acknowledged some past mistakes.
- Four prisoners with links to al-Qaida being guarded by American troops escaped from a maximum-security prison in Baghdad and are still at large on Thursday September 9, 2010. The breakout from Karkh Prison, formerly called Camp Cropper, is an embarrassment for the U.S. military, which has handed over control of all of the detention facilities it used to run to the Iraqi government. But at the request of the Iraqis, the U.S. has retained custody over some of the most dangerous prisoners, including those with ties to terrorist groups or Saddam Hussein's former regime. U.S. troops found two detainees attempting to escape from the compound on Wednesday evening. When they conducted a sweep of the whole facility, they discovered that four other detainees were missing.
- The widow of an al Qaeda in Iraq leader has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, after being convicted of involvement in terrorism. Hasna Ali was the wife of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, one of the two top leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq who were killed in a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation in April 2010. Al-Masri was military leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council spokesman said on Sunday June 26, 2011, that Hasna Ali, who is from Yemen, was sentenced in an Iraqi court.
- An Iraqi court sentenced three men to death Tuesday August 2, 2011, for masterminding a church siege last year that killed 68 people in one of the most horrific attacks on the nation's Christian minority. The three men were found guilty of planning and preparing the October 31, 2010, attack, when al-Qaida suicide bombers held worshippers hostage at Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation cathedral for hours before detonating explosives belts. The attack horrified Iraqis and Christians across the world. The three men have a month to appeal. A fourth man linked to the attack was sentenced earlier to 20 years in prison. The names of the men were not released. Baghdad's Christian community welcomed the verdict.
- Three policemen and three inmates were killed in a prison break attempt
in Iraq's central city of Hilla. The incident occurred Friday August 5, 2011,
when prisoners managed to seize some weapons and clashed with the guards and
then controlled part of the prison's compound. Eight other prisoners were
wounded and some 20 prisoners managed to escape from the prison, some of them
were wearing police uniforms. The prison holds some 1,200 prisoners, including
some leaders of Al Qaeda militant group and some insurgent groups.
- The U.S. has handed over all of the remaining detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq, except for a Lebanese Hezbollah commander linked to the death of four American troops. Iraqi Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim says 37 detainees were transferred to Iraqi custody Tuesday November 24, 2011. Under the security agreement, all detainees in U.S. custody must be transferred to Iraqi authorities by the end of this year.
- The Obama administration turned over the last remaining prisoner in American
custody in Iraq to the Iraqi government on Friday December 16, 2011, a move
expected to unleash a political backlash inside the United States even as
the American military draws closer to completing its exit. The prisoner, Ali
Musa Daqduq, from Lebanon, is suspected of being a Hezbollah operative and
is accused of helping to orchestrate a raid in January 2007 by Shiite militants
who wore American-style uniforms and carried forged identity cards. They killed
five American soldiers in Karbala, one in the raid, and four others who were
kidnapped and their bodies later dumped by a road.
- Iraq's presidency approved the death penalty on Thursday January 19, 2012, for 11 men, including Al-Qaeda militants, convicted two years ago of being behind devastating attacks against two ministries in 2009. The August 19, 2009 were an embarrassing security breach and caused massive destruction, leaving 106 people dead and around 600 wounded.
- Iraq executed 17 people on Wednesday February 1, 2012, days after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay criticized Baghdad for carrying out a large number of executions and questioned the fairness of its judicial proceedings. The accused had been convicted of terrorism, armed robbery, kidnapping and murder. Ministry statistics indicated that Iraq executed 34 people in January.
- Iraqi authorities executed at least 65 people in the first 40 days of 2012
for various offenses, including 14 on Wednesday alone, we were told on Thursday
February 9, 2012. Trials often violate international standards. Many defendants
are unable to challenge the evidence against them, which may include coerced
confession.
- A suspected Hezbollah militant accused of masterminding the killing of Americans in Iraq has been cleared of all charges and will be freed, his lawyer said on Monday May 7, 2012. Ali Mussa Daqduq was accused of training Iraqi militants and orchestrating a 2007 kidnapping attack that killed five U.S. troops. The Iraqi judiciary decided to dismiss all the charges against him and release him without any conditions because there was a lack of evidence. Daqduq's case became a source of tension between Baghdad and Washington in the run-up to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in December. U.S. government officials originally sought to keep Daqduq in custody, saying they feared Iraqi authorities would be unable to hold him for long or convict him. The U.S. officials said they eventually agreed to hand him over to the Iraqi authorities after receiving assurances Daqduq would be tried for his crimes. Daqduq's lawyer said the Iraqi government would decide whether he would be sent back to his native Lebanon after his release or handed over to his embassy in Baghdad.
- A former interior minister who served under Saddam Hussein has been released from an Iraqi prison after completing his jail sentence we were told on Tuesday July 10, 2012. Mahmoud Thiab al-Ahmed spent eight years in prison for his part in the campaign to drain marshes in southern Iraq. He was released on Monday.
- A U.S. citizen convicted of links with al Qaeda has been sentenced to life in prison by an Iraqi court we were told on Thursday October 4, 2012. Omar Rashad Khalil, who is of Palestinian origin, was arrested in 2010 and accused of helping finance and execute "terrorist operations" inside Iraq. The ruling said Khalil, in his early 50s, was an architect and also went by the name Abu Muhammad. He was sentenced by Baghdad's central criminal court on Wednesday.
- Eleven people have been executed in Iraq, bringing the number of executions this year to at least 113. Ten Iraqis and one Algerian were put to death on Sunday October 7, 2012. The men were convicted of terrorist activities. The high number of executions has led to international calls for a moratorium on Baghdad's use of the death penalty.
- An Iraqi court on Thursday November 1, 2012, unexpectedly convicted the country's fugitive Sunni vice president on charges of instigating bodyguards to assassinate a senior government official and sentenced him to death. The verdict was the second death sentence for Tariq al-Hashemi in less than two months, and is likely to stoke further resentment among Iraq's minority Sunni Muslims against the Shiite-led government. The sentence is unlikely to be carried out any time soon because al-Hashemi has exiled himself in neighbouring Turkey. He fled Iraq in December 2011 after the government accused him of playing a role in numerous attacks. The criminal court in Baghdad also sentenced al-Hashemi's son-in-law, Ahmed Qahtan, to death on the same charges. He said the two men were convicted of encouraging bodyguards to kill an official by sticking a bomb to his car. Al-Hashemi's top lawyer said he was surprised to hear about the ruling because the vice president's legal team had not been made aware of this case. The attorney, Muayad Obeid al-Ezzi, immediately questioned the legality of the decision.
- An Iraqi court handed the country’s fugitive Sunni vice president a new death sentence on Sunday November 4, 2012, after finding him guilty of ordering his bodyguards to attack Shiite pilgrims. It was the third case in which Tariq al-Hashemi was sentenced to death since last spring, when judicial authorities started to try him on terrorism charges. All verdicts have been delivered in absentia, since al-Hashemi is in exile in Turkey after fleeing in December 2011 when the Shiite-led government levelled accusations against him.
- Two guards of vice president Tareq al-Hashemi were Thursday November 8, 2012, sentenced by an Iraqi court to death for planting a roadside bomb, at a hearing boycotted by defence lawyers who said it was unfair. Thursday's rulings follow death sentences for six other bodyguards at a hearing on Tuesday. Defence lawyers stayed away from both trials to protest what they alleged were pre-arranged verdicts.
- Iraqi authorities executed 10 prisoners Sunday November 11, 2012, for terrorism convictions. The prisoners -nine Iraqis and one Egyptian- were put to death in the latest of several executions carried out by Iraqi authorities in recent months. Since November of 2011, more than 120 people have been executed in Iraq, according to a CNN tally. Sixty-five of them were put to death in the first 40 days of 2012.
- Suspected Hezbollah operative Ali Mussa Daqduq was freed by Iraqi authorities and flew to Lebanon on Friday November 16, 2012, after an Iraqi court acquitted him of involvement in the killing of five U.S. soldiers. The move was likely to anger the United States, which handed Daqduq over to Iraqi custody last December after failing to convince Baghdad to extradite him over his role in a 2007 kidnapping that ended in the killing of the soldiers. Earlier this year, U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had received assurances from Iraq it would not release Daqduq, even though an Iraqi court had cleared him of the charges.- An Iraqi court has handed down a fifth death sentence on the country's fugitive Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on a weapons charge on Thursday December 13, 2012. The sentence was issued by the Central Criminal Court for possession, transportation and use of silenced weapons. Hashemi, a prominent critic of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, dismisses the charges against him and his staff, some of whom have also been sentenced to death, as politically motivated. Hashemi, his secretary and his guards were originally accused of running a death squad in mid-December 2011 as the last US troops left the country. He fled to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, which declined to hand him over to the federal government, and then embarked on a tour that took him to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and finally to Turkey.
Iraqi authorities on Thursday January 3, 2012, ordered the release of 11 women facing criminal charges and pledged to transfer other female inmates to prisons in their home provinces. ---
On Sunday May 18, 2014, we were told that the US authorities have quietly released 10 Pakistani detainees from Bagram Prison in Afghanistan after the men had spent years in prison without trial. One had been held for 10 years after being captured by British forces in Iraq and transferred to Afghanistan. US authorities say that the detentions are necessary to keep potentially dangerous men off the battlefield. It was not immediately clear where the 10 released men had been taken. Foreign prisoners at Bagram, sometimes dubbed “Afghanistan’s Guantanamo Bay”, face review boards staffed by US military officers but are not allowed to know all evidence against them or be represented by a lawyer of their choice.