Baghdad’s Rusafa detention center
A guard watches over detainees in Baghdad’s Rusafa detention center as they wait in a holding cage to visit lawyers provided by a free legal clinic funded by the U.S. in an effort to clear the backlog of prisoners caught in the system. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)
An Iraqi man stands in a holding cage waiting to see a lawyer at a Baghdad detention facility. Kareem Swadi Lami, a former cop and longtime attorney who heads the free legal clinic estimates that about half the roughly 6,500 men in the Rusafa complex have been held at least three years. They are among about 26,000 detainees in Iraqi-run prisons; in addition, nearly 20,000 prisoners are held in U.S.-run facilities in Iraq. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)
Detainees ordered to be freed wait in line to receive clothing, some money and their belongings before leaving a Baghdad detention facility. Since an amnesty law was passed in February, 5062 cases have been submitted for consideration and 1,420 Rusafa inmates have been freed. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)
Dawud Yusif, 45, clutches a $20 bill given to him by prison officials and grabs some donated clothes to wear before being released from a Baghdad detention facility in August. Yusif said he was held more than a year without knowing what he was charged with. Many say they confessed to crimes they hadn’t committed after beatings by interrogators and police. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)