IRAQ: UNITED STATES MILITARY RELEASE OVER ONE HUNDRED IRAQI DETAINEES FROM ABU GHRAIB PRISON

Record ID: 338198

  • Title: IRAQ: UNITED STATES MILITARY RELEASE OVER ONE HUNDRED IRAQI DETAINEES FROM ABU GHRAIB PRISON
  • Date: 2nd August 2004
  • Summary: (W3) ABU GHRAIB PRISON, BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 1, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV U.S. HUMVEES PULLING OUT OF ABU GHRAIB PRISON FOLLOWED BY BUS CARRYING FREED PRISONERS; PRISONERS WAVING FROM WINDOWS AS BUS DRIVES PAST RELATIVES WAITING IN THE ROAD SHOULDER 0.28 2. ANOTHER BUS LEAVING PRISON COMPOUND 0.43 (W3) AMIRIYA MILITARY BASE, BAGHDAD, IRAQ (A
  • Embargoed: 17th August 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ABU GHRAIB PRISON/ AMIRIYA MILITARY BASE, BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAEH0K8G7TGYDYYFWX50DTQPMAJ
  • Story Text: The U.S. military has released over one hundred
    Iraqi detainees from Abu Ghraib prison.

    About 128 detainees were released from Abu Ghraib
    prison on Sunday (August 1, 2004), becoming the latest group of
    prisoners to be freed from the detention facility west of
    Baghdad.

    The move is part of a U.S. programme to cut the
    population of the renowned prison in half and send
    detainees home to their families
    Relatives of prisoners packed the shoulder of the
    highway outside the prison, waiting for their loved ones to
    emerge from behind the thick stonewalls and the barbed wire.

    Sunday's release got underway at 0800 (0400 GMT) in the
    morning as six buses rolled out of the prison compound, led
    by a convoy of humvees heading towards Amiriya military
    base west of Baghdad from where the prisoners were set free.

    According to sources at prison, 44 out of the freed 128
    prisoners were from Baghdad and the remaining 84 prisoners
    from other provinces.

    The released prisoners waved frantically from the bus
    windows and cried out in joy.

    As the buses arrived at Amiriya military base the
    prisoners spilled out of the buses, into the arms of their
    emotional family members who had not known whether they
    would ever hold one another again.

    Abu Ghraib was at the centre of a scandal over
    allegations that American prison guards abused Iraqi
    detainees. The scandal came to light in April when
    photographs of hooded and naked prisoners were made public,
    provoking a torrent of international criticism. Seven U.S.

    soldiers were charged with abuse.

    U.S. authorities have released thousands of detainees
    from Abu Ghraib in the last three months.


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