A Reuters photographer Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed has been freed by the US military after 17 months’ detention in Iraq without charge.
Mohammed, an Iraqi who contributed to Reuters on a freelance basis, was released yesterday.
“How can I describe my feelings? This is like being born again,” Jassam told Reuters by telephone as he was greeted emotionally by his family.
Reuters reported:
“U.S. and Iraqi forces smashed in the doors to Jassam’s house in Mahmudiya town, south of Baghdad, in September 2008 and whisked him away.
He spent time in a desert prison on the Iraq-Kuwait border, called Camp Bucca, and the smaller Camp Cropper detention centre near Baghdad airport.
Jassam was one of several Iraqi journalists working for foreign news organisations who have been detained by the U.S. military, often for months at a time, since the 2003 U.S. invasion. None has ever been charged, triggering criticism from international journalism rights groups.”
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