Military Still Holding AP Photographer 365 Days Later

Military Still Holding AP Photographer 365 Days Later

April 12, 2007
By Daryl Lang (PDN)

On April 12, 2006 Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was arrested in Ramadi, Iraq, by the U.S. military. He has now been their prisoner for one year.

While the AP continues to work for his release, Hussein is caught in a system that labels him a security risk and gives him no access to a fair trial. He is far from alone: There are about 18,000 security detainees being held at two facilities in Iraq, according to the military.

Dozens of Iraqi journalists have been held for short times and released, but Hussein's case is extraordinary because of his high profile work for the AP and the long amount of time he has been detained.

The AP has steadfastly defended Hussein, a Sunni Iraqi whose photography was part of a package that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. The AP says its own review turned up no evidence that Hussein is associated with the insurgency.

"Bilal has done nothing to justify a year in detention without charges," says Paul Gardephe, a lawyer working on Bilal's behalf for the Associated Press, quoted in an AP story this week. "The military has not provided any credible evidence to support the various accusations of criminal conduct that it has made."

Gardephe met with Hussein recently at the Camp Cropper prison, near the Baghdad airport, the AP reports. While Hussein is permitted to meet with a lawyer and AP staff, neither they nor Hussein himself are allowed to attend his review hearings.

A military spokesperson said Wednesday that Hussein's case has been reviewed four times, most recently in November. Each review determined that he was a security risk. His case was reviewed by the Detention Review Authority on April 22, 2006, a "Magistrate Cell" of judge advocates on April 25, 2006, and the Iraqi-U.S. Combined Review and Release Board on July 2, 2006 and November 6, 2006. The Combined Review and Release Board is scheduled to examine his case again in the next 30 days.

"Iraq continues to hold Mr. Hussein as an imperative threat to the security of the Iraqi people and Multi-National Forces in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1546, 1637 and 1723," the unnamed military spokesperson said in an e-mail.

According to Gardephe, the AP lawyer, U.S. officials have leveled nine informal allegations against Hussein, but indicate that they lack solid evidence on seven of the allegations. The two other charges include offering to make a fake ID for an insurgent sniper and taking photographs synchronized with explosions.

But Gardephe says the charges lack merit, given that fake IDs are readily available in Iraq and none of the 900 photographs Hussein submitted to the AP were synchronized with an explosion.

AP executives and press organizations have publicly called for Hussein's release or for formal charges to be levied against him.

"The United States must release our colleague Bilal Hussein," said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, in a statement this week. "The authorities have had a full year to produce evidence and bring charges but have failed to do so."

Hussein was a shopkeeper from Fallujah who joined the AP to help with newsgathering and later was trained as a photographer. He covered fighting in Fallujah and Ramadi, where some of his photographs showed insurgents firing weapons at U.S. forces.

The AP worked for several months behind the scenes to argue for Hussein's release before going public with his story last September.

Hussein's family is allowed to visit him one hour a month, the AP reports.