AP's Bilal Hussein Awarded Spanish Foundation Prize

 

By CIARAN GILES, Associated Press

BARCELONA, SPAIN (May 22, 2008) – Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who spent more than two years in U.S. military custody on suspicion of being a security threat, was awarded a journalism prize by a Spanish foundation today.

The Barcelona-based Miguel Gil Moreno Foundation said the prize was in recognition of Hussein's photographs and for all the work done by local reporters in Iraq.

The prize is named for Miguel Gil Moreno, a Spanish cameraman killed in 2000 while covering the Sierra Leone conflict for AP Television News.

The award was created in 2002 by Spanish colleagues of Gil, in collaboration with his family, and is given each year to a war correspondent.

Hussein, a 36-year-old Iraqi, was unable to attend the ceremony but he sent a video message expressing appreciation.

He thanked Gil's family and the jury for giving him the prize, and colleagues at the AP, especially AP president Tom Curley, for their support during his period in captivity.

"I would like to go back to work when it is convenient, after a period of vacation. It is an honor to work for the agency, which has given me everything," Hussein said.

AP's chief photographer in Spain and Portugal, Victor Caivano, accepted the award on Hussein's behalf.

Hussein was released April 16 when American military police handed him over to AP colleagues, two years and four days after he was detained by U.S. Marines in Ramadi, 100 kilometers west of the capital.

The release came after two Iraqi judicial amnesty committees ruled that there would be no trial on any of the accusations against him. The U.S. military said it no longer deemed Hussein a threat.

Hussein denies U.S. military accusations that he had improper contacts with Iraqi insurgents in the areas where he was living. He says he was doing the normal work of a photographer in a war zone.

His detention drew protests from rights groups and press freedom advocates, including the National Press Photographers Association.

 

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