Iraqis give AP photographer full release after US holds him for 2 years

[Thorgrim]

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi judicial committee has dismissed terrorism-related allegations against Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein and ordered him released nearly two years after he was detained by the U.S. military.

Hussein, 36, remained in custody at Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention facility near Baghdad's airport.

A decision by a four-judge panel said Hussein's case falls under a new amnesty law. It ordered Iraqi courts to "cease legal proceedings" and ruled that Hussein should be "immediately" released unless other accusations are pending.

The ruling is dated Monday but AP's lawyers were not able to thoroughly review it until Wednesday. It was unclear, however, whether Hussein would still face further obstacles to release.

U.S. military authorities have said a U.N. Security Council mandate allows them to retain custody of a detainee they believe is a security risk even if an Iraqi judicial body has ordered that prisoner freed. The U.N. mandate is due to expire at the end of this year.

Also, the amnesty committee's ruling on Hussein may not cover a separate allegation that has been raised in connection with the case.

AP President Tom Curley hailed the committee's decision and demanded that the U.S. military "finally do the right thing" and free Hussein.

Under Iraq's 2-month-old amnesty law, a grant of amnesty effectively closes a case and does not assume guilt of the accused.

Hussein has been held by the U.S. military since being detained by Marines on April 12, 2006, in Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad. Throughout his incarceration, he has maintained he is innocent and was only doing the work of a professional news photographer in a war zone.

The amnesty committee's decision covers various allegations by the U.S. military against Hussein, including claims he was in possession of bomb-making material, conspired with insurgents to take photographs synchronized with an explosion and offered to secure a forged ID for a terrorist evading capture by the military.

The committee may still be reviewing a separate allegation that Hussein had contacts with the kidnappers of an Italian citizen, Salvatore Santoro, whose body was photographed by Hussein in December 2004 with two masked insurgents standing over Santoro with guns.

Hussein was one of three journalists who were stopped at gunpoint by insurgents and taken by them to see the propped-up body. None of the journalists witnessed his death, said Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography. The AP wrote a story about the incident at the time.

The AP said a review of Hussein's work and contacts also found no evidence of any activities beyond the normal role of a news photographer. Hussein was a member of an AP team that won a Pulitzer Prize for photography in 2005, and his detention has drawn protests from rights groups and press freedom advocates such as the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"The Amnesty Committee took only a few days to determine what we have been saying for two years. Bilal Hussein must be freed immediately," said Curley, the AP's president.

"The U.S. military has said the Iraqi process should be allowed to work. It has, and the military must finally do the right thing by ending its detention of a journalist who did nothing more than his job. Bilal's imprisonment stands as a sad black mark on American values of justice and fairness," Curley added.

The U.S. military referred the case in December to an investigating judge, who reviewed the evidence and submitted his findings to the Central Criminal Court of Iraq to determine whether the case should go to trial.

In February, however, parliament approved a law providing amnesty to those held for insurgency-related offenses — including detainees such as Hussein who have never been convicted.

The committee from the Iraqi Federal Appeals Court ruled Monday that allegations against Hussein were covered by the Anti-Terrorist Law and were subject to the amnesty law.

The order was sent to the Iraqi public prosecutor, but it was unclear if it had been received.

A lawyer for the AP was provided a copy of the order, but Wednesday was a public holiday in Iraq and government offices were closed.

The amnesty committee — or any Iraqi institution — cannot force the U.S. military to release or turn over any of the estimated 23,000 detainees it holds in Iraq. But a provision in the amnesty law states that the Iraqi government "is committed to take the necessary measures to move the arrested people" from U.S. control.

AP photographer granted Iraqi amnesty - Yahoo! News

Imagine 2 years of your life taken away...even after you were a certified AP reporter, just because you have such a brutal occupation

This kind of "occupation law" is against international standards and is the kind of law we'll have here at home if we elect someone like McCain (See Hamdi v. Rumsfeld)

[Fed Up]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

Imagine 2 years of your life taken away...even after you were a certified AP reporter, just because you have such a brutal occupation

This kind of "occupation law" is against international standards and is the kind of law we'll have here at home if we elect someone like McCain (See Hamdi v. Rumsfeld)

I don't know if it can be labeled as a one party issue. Both parties are taking away our freedoms and you need look no further than how they vote in a currently democratic controlled Congress.

Congress is hard at work destroying our freedoms.....And who speaks up about it? Spitzer was criticizing the government in a NYTimes editorial recently and the government utilized the Patriot Act, which gave them the opportunity to "get" Spitzer. This is one example of how wiretaps were used, not to fight terrorism, but to bring down someone who criticized the government openly.

The amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will just give our government more power over us. "Last month, the House amended the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to expand the government's ability to monitor our private communications. This measure, if it becomes law, will result in more warrantless government surveillance of innocent American citizens."

S.1959 (which passed the House by a LARGE margin, and is now in the Senate's hands) is even one more example of government taking our freedoms away whereby you won't even be able to write anything negative about the government or you might be considered a "domestic terrorist!"

And then there is the attempt to reclassify what the 2nd amendment means!

When will it end? Where is the voice of opposition?

Fed Up

[hsmith]

This kind of "occupation law" is against international standards and is the kind of law we'll have here at home if we elect someone like McCain

is all I can say