Iraqi prisoners to be prosecuted or freed, US says

BAGHDAD - Thousands of Iraqi prisoners being held indefinitely without charge by US forces will be freed or prosecuted in Iraqi courts by the middle of this year, the US commander in charge of them said yesterday.

US forces are currently holding just over 13,000 Iraqi prisoners, Brigadier General David Quantock, commander of the US detention operations in Iraq, told a news conference.

At its peak in November 2007, the number of prisoners held by the US military was double that, he said.

"Within the next couple of days we will drop below 13,000 detainees, of which about 2,500 are being prosecuted," he said. Some 500 of those had been convicted, 109 with death sentences.

Some detainees had been held without trial for almost six years - under a UN Security Council resolution that expired Dec. 31 - stoking the anger of Iraqis and rights groups.

But under the terms of a bilateral pact that took effect Jan. 1, Washington agreed that all its detainees would be either transferred to Iraqi custody under arrest warrants or set free.

Of those still held, Quantock said, "there are 6,000 to 7,000 who we consider dangerous detainees. . . . The government can look at the intelligence [and] provide assistance to build cases."