Prisons crowded since Baghdad crackdown

[Joanne98]

Source: Associated Press

Prisons crowded since Baghdad crackdown


By BUSHRA JUHI Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi monitoring group said Wednesday that detention centers have become severely overcrowded since a security crackdown began six weeks ago in Baghdad and most of the inmates were being held without evidence.

Maan Zeki Khadum, the deputy head of the governmental legal oversight group, said one facility on the western edge of Baghdad held 272 inmates although it was designed for 75, while another lockup south of the capital — with room for 75 — reportedly held nearly 800 prisoners.

He said his team of 17 lawyers visited the detention center at the Iraqi-run Muthanna Air Base on the western outskirts of Baghdad on March 13 and found the prisoners in poor conditions, with five people crammed into a cell built for one.

He also complained that a woman who was detained with her daughter and four boys on charges unconnected to the Baghdad security crackdown had been thrown in with the other prisoners.

"They were there by chance, which indicates an ignorance of the law among some security elements," he said. "We made contacts with higher officials ... and the woman and her daughter were transferred to a female detention center and the boys were transferred to a juvenile prison."



Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4669199.html

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