Iraqi PM says 2,500 detainees will be released
Prime minister Nouri Maliki today said 2,500 Iraqi prisoners would be freed from US and Iraqi-run detention centres as part of reconciliation efforts in the war-torn country.
The first batch of about 500 detainees will be released tomorrow, Maliki said.
The prisoners to be freed will be chosen by a committee that will review their cases, he said, adding that loyalists of ousted leader Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party and "terrorists whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people" will be excluded.
Maliki, a Shiite, said he decided to free the detainees as part of efforts to achieve “reconciliation and national dialogue” among Iraq’s fractured ethnic and religious parties.
Sunni Arabs, who were dominant under Saddam’s regime, but lost power after the US-led invasion, have complained of random detentions and maltreatment of prisoners at the hands of the Shiite-led government.
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