Photography Collection

The US military is refusing to comply with an Iraqi court order to release an Iraqi freelance photographer who works for Reuters news agency, a US military spokesman said. The Iraqi Central Criminal Court last week ordered the release of Ibrahim Jassam, saying there was insufficient evidence against the photographer, who has been held by the US since September. Maj Neal Fisher, a spokesman for the US detention command, said yesterday the US is not bound by the ruling of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq because there was intelligence information indicating Jassam was a security threat. A UN mandate authorises the US to hold detainees without charge if they are deemed a security threat. The mandate expires Dec 31 and will be replaced by a recently approved security agreement that requires the US to hand over any Iraqis picked up in the course of military operations. Under the agreement, the US must hand over the more than 15,000 detainees in its custody to the Iraqis or release them if there is not enough evidence to hold them. Fisher said Jassam would be freed sometime after Dec 31 along with other detainees, based on an evaluation of his level of threat. Jassam was detained in early September in a raid on his home by US and Iraqi forces in Mahmoudiya, located south of Baghdad in what was once considered one of the most violent areas of Iraq known as the "Triangle of Death." Since the US-led invasion of 2003, the US military has detained a number of Iraqi journalists working for international news organisations, including The Associated Press. None has been convicted in an Iraqi court.