BAGHDAD, IRAQ (April 10, 2008) - The U.S. military says it will not free Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photojournalist Bilal Hussein unless it's own review board approves, despite the fact that an Iraqi judicial committee this week dismissed terrorism-related charges against the photographer, granted him amnesty, and ordered him released.
The military seized and detained Hussein in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, two years ago this week. They have held him without charging him with any crime under the suspicion that he had worked with Iraqi insurgents.
But today Lt. Commander Kenneth Marshall, a spokesman for U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said that Iraq's new amnesty law "does not apply to people in U.S. military custody."
"If the amnesty is granted (by the Iraqi panel) on both counts, he remains in detainee status," Marshall said. "He would then most likely be reviewed as a detainee and he would be released if not seen to be an imperative threat to the security of Iraq."
In November, U.S. military spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner said Hussein's case had been reviewed several times by a board that periodically reviews the files of detainees. Hussein was still deemed a "security threat," he said at the time.
Many of the 23,000 detainees in U.S. military custody have not been charged but remain in jail because they are deemed a security risk.
Hussein was part of AP's team of photojournalists who won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for their coverage of the war in Iraq.
Reuters reports that Hussein is just one of several Iraqi journalists who have been held by the U.S. military without being charged. Reuters journalists have also been detained by the U.S. military for months and later released without charges.
Secretly charged, never brought to trail, independently investigated and found innocent of any wrongdoing, there are many who believe that the photographer was never a legitimate threat to begin with, and that his two year detention without being brought to trial is a travesty of justice.
“The Amnesty Committee took only a few days to determine what we have been saying for two years. Bilal Hussein must be freed immediately, AP president and CEO Tom Curley said yesterday.
But Hussein, 36, today is still in custody at Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention facility near Baghdad's airport.
A decision this week by a four-judge panel said Hussein's case falls under a new Iraqi amnesty law. It ordered Iraqi courts to "cease legal proceedings" and ruled that Hussein should be "immediately" released unless other accusations are pending.
The amnesty committee's ruling on Hussein may not cover a separate allegation that has been raised in connection with the case. The committee may still be reviewing a separate allegation that Hussein had contacts with the kidnappers of an Italian citizen, Salvatore Santoro, whose body was photographed by Hussein in December 2004 with two masked insurgents standing over Santoro with guns.
Hussein was one of three journalists who were stopped at gunpoint by insurgents and taken by them to see the propped-up body. None of the journalists witnessed his death, said Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography. The AP wrote a story about the incident at the time, and has compiled information about the incident here.
U.S. military authorities have said a U.N. Security Council mandate allows them to retain custody of a detainee they believe is a security risk even if an Iraqi judicial body has ordered that prisoner freed. The U.N. mandate is due to expire at the end of this year.
Under Iraq's 2-month-old amnesty law, a grant of amnesty effectively closes a case and does not assume guilt of the accused.
During the past two years AP has worked quietly behind the scenes for Hussein's release, being careful what they're reported and said publicly as they continued to seek his freedom.
"The U.S. military has said the Iraqi process should be allowed to work. It has, and the military must finally do the right thing by ending its detention of a journalist who did nothing more than his job. Bilal’s imprisonment stands as a sad black mark on American values of justice and fairness," Curley said.
AP says the ruling is dated Monday but that their lawyers were not able to thoroughly review it until Wednesday. It was unclear, however, whether Hussein would still face further obstacles to release.
Hussein has been held by the U.S. military since being detained by U.S. Marines on April 12, 2006, in Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad. Throughout his incarceration, he has maintained he is innocent and was only doing the work of a professional news photographer in a war zone.
The AP said a review of Hussein's work and contacts also found no evidence of any activities beyond the normal role of a news photographer. Hussein was a member of an AP team that won a Pulitzer Prize for photography in 2005, and his detention has drawn protests from rights groups and press freedom advocates such as the National Press Photographers Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The U.S. military referred the case in December to an investigating judge, who reviewed the evidence and submitted his findings to the Central Criminal Court of Iraq to determine whether the case should go to trial.
The amnesty committee's decision covers various allegations by the U.S. military against Hussein, including claims he was in possession of bomb-making material, conspired with insurgents to take photographs synchronized with an explosion and offered to secure a forged ID for a terrorist evading capture by the military.
In February, parliament approved a law providing amnesty to those held for insurgency-related offenses — including detainees such as Hussein who have never been convicted.
The committee from the Iraqi Federal Appeals Court ruled Monday that allegations against Hussein were covered by the Anti-Terrorist Law and were subject to the amnesty law.
The order was sent to the Iraqi public prosecutor, but it was unclear if it had been received. A lawyer for the AP was provided a copy of the order, but Wednesday was a public holiday in Iraq and government offices were closed.
The amnesty committee — or any Iraqi institution — cannot force the U.S. military to release or turn over any of the estimated 23,000 detainees it holds in Iraq. But a provision in the amnesty law states that the Iraqi government "is committed to take the necessary measures to move the arrested people" from U.S. control.
In November 2007 the AP released the results of an independent, impartial, and intense investigation conducted by former federal prosecutor Paul G. Gardephe, who examined the military's claims against Hussein. Gardephe's 50-page report found the accusations were "false or meaningless," and "despite the fact that Hussein has not been interrogated since May 2006, allegations have been dropped or modified over time, and new claims added, all without any explanation." Gardephe works for Patterson Belkanp Webb & Tyler in New York City.
