WASHINGTON, DC (October 12, 2007) - A petition signed by nearly 1,500 journalists from more than 80 countries calling for the release of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been sent to the U.S. Government on the 18 month anniversary of Hussein's detention.
A group calling itself the Free Bilal Committee sent the petition and put out a press release to call attention to the fact that Hussein has been held by U.S. military forces since April 12, 2006, without being charged with any crime.
The petition was faxed to the State Department, the White House, and the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the committee says, as well as to the Office of the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The committee says the petition's signers include photojournalists of global stature, such as Al Diaz, David Leeson, Judy Walgren, Oded Bality, Lucian Perkins, John Moore, Gary Knight and John Stanmeyer of VII Agency, and Sabastiao Salgado, among many, many others.
The petition and the full list of those who have signed is online at www.freebilal.org.
Hussein was arrested by the U.S. military on April 12, 2006, in Ramadi. They say the photographer was in the company of two alleged insurgents, and in an apartment where there were bomb-making materials. The military has said that his arrest and detention were for "imperative reasons of security" and legal under United Nations' resolutions. The military has said that Hussein has "strong ties to insurgents" that go beyond his role as a journalist.
The photographer was part of AP's photo team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for their coverage of the war in Iraq.
AP has challenged the military to either charge Hussein with a crime, or release him. The photographer has not been charged with any crimes. AP says their research shows that U.N. resolutions do not allow for indefinite detention, and challenge the military to bring any evidence against Hussein before the Iraqi criminal justice system.
AP has it's own Web page about the detention of Hussein, and it's online at www.ap.org/bilalhussein/.
