US military to free AP photographer

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military says it will release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein after more than two years in custody.

The statement said Hussein will be freed Wednesday now that Iraqi judicial committees have granted him amnesty for all allegations.

Hussein has been in custody since April 12, 2006 when he was detained by U.S. Marines for alleged links to insurgents. The AP and Hussein deny any improper links and say he was only doing his job as a journalist.

AP President Tom Curley expressed relief after the statement issued by the military on Monday.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080414/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_detained_photographer

[Barrett808]

1. Rec for good news. n/t

[Hissyspit]

2. U.S. to Release A.P. Photographer Jailed in Iraq

Source: New York Times

U.S. to Release A.P. Photographer Jailed in Iraq

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: April 15, 2008

The United States military said Monday that it would release an Associated Press photographer who has been jailed in Iraq without trial for two years on accusations of terrorism and kidnapping. The announcement came after two rulings over the previous week by panels of Iraqi judges, who said that the photographer, Bilal Hussein, was covered by an amnesty law and should be released. But such decisions are not binding on the coalition forces in Iraq, and it was not clear at first whether the military would continue to hold him.

The judicial panels did not pass judgment on the guilt or innocence of Mr. Hussein, 36, who is an Iraqi citizen. The Associated Press has insisted that he did nothing wrong, but the military made no concession on that point Monday.

- snip -

Mr. Hussein was arrested on April 12, 2006, while covering fighting in Ramadi. He was charged with having bomb-making materials and advance knowledge of insurgent attacks on coalition forces, conspiring with insurgents to take pictures at the moment they detonated explosives in those attacks, offering to forge an identification card for a terrorist, and taking part in a kidnapping.

Officials of The Associated Press have said that Mr. Hussein was detained to keep him from taking pictures of the fighting. He was one of a team of photographers who won a Pulitzer Prize for their work in Iraq. The military did not allow him to go before a court until last November.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/business/media/15apee.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin