Posted on 11/06/2006 10:34:59 PM PST by jmc1969
Iraq's Interior Ministry has charged 57 employees, including high-ranking officers, with human rights crimes for their roles in the torture of hundreds of detainees once jailed in a notorious eastern Baghdad prison known as Site 4, officials announced Monday.
The charges marked the first time the present Iraqi government has taken criminal action against members of its own security forces for operating torture chambers inside Interior Ministry prisons, said Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a ministry spokesman.
"Whoever abuses power and authority will be held accountable, regardless of their position or background," Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told reporters in an opulent room in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces. "This is giving a lesson for those in our ministry who may want to violate the law."
The action was the latest move in a series of recent Interior Ministry crackdowns on the police forces it runs. The Iraqi government is engaged in an intense struggle to bring under control sectarian reprisal killings, death squads and criminal gangs.
In recent months, Bolani has fired more than 3,000 employees. In early October, the ministry suspended an entire police brigade on the suspicion that its members could be linked to Shiite death squads. Two weeks later, the ministry removed two of its highest-ranking police generals, who led its special police commandos and its public order brigade, both widely known to be infiltrated by Shiite militias.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Thank you to all coalition troops and G.W Bush for setting in motion the wheels of Democracy in Iraq.
Thank you for the Iraq Justice system for keeping those wheels oiled.
Thanks for the post jmc1969.
It is interesting because it has the smell of civilization!
No big deal, provided they didn't put panties on anyone's head.
Thank goodness!
Another Iraq is working out bump....
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