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Iraq court directs US to free photographer detained for over 2 months

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on Sunday ordered the release of Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, an Iraqi freelance photographer working for Reuters held by the US military. The court order, supplied to a Reuters' attorney, said the US military had no evidence to support Jassam's continued imprisonment. Jassam has been held since September in a military prison near the Baghdad airport after being detained after a raid on his home in Mahmudiya. Press groups have called upon the US military to act more quickly when reviewing cases involving journalists covering the Iraq war. A joint statement on Jassam's case issued in November by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Iraqi-based Journalistic Freedom Observatory noted that "Since the start of the US armed intervention in Iraq in March 2003, the worldwide press freedom organisation has recorded arrests of 12 people working for Reuters, all of whom have subsequently been released and their cases closed without further action." Currently, the US has the right to hold indefinitely anyone that it deems a threat until the UN mandate authorizing US presence in Iraq which expires on December 31, 2008. Last week, the Iraqi parliament approved a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that limits the US military's ability to detain uncharged persons after its January 1, 2009 implementation.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 01, 2008 (boomark / email).