Reuters photographer starts second year detained by US military in Iraq

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the continuing American refusal to release Reuters photographer Ibrahim Jassam, who is beginning his second year of detention by the US military in Iraq although he has never been formally charged.
“The US military has insisted on detaining Jassam for the past year although it is withdrawing from the major cities and handing over to the Iraqi authorities,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Acquitted by the Iraqi judicial system, he is being held without charge illegally. He must be freed without delay.”
Jassam was arrested by US and Iraqi soldiers in the south Baghdad district of Mahmoudiyah on 1 September 2008. The Iraqi central criminal court ruled on 30 November that he had no case to answer and ordered his released. Nonetheless, he is still being held in Buki prison in Basra, 550 km south of Baghdad.
Reporters Without Borders has written several times to Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of the US military forces in Iraq, requesting Jassam’s release without ever receiving a reply.
In its letter of 4 March, the press freedom organisation wrote: “The new US president has just announced the withdrawal of US combat troops within 16 months, thereby confirming a complete transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi authorities. It is now incomprehensible that the US forces should continue to defy an Iraqi court order.”