Iraqi Jail ‘Difficult’ for U.S. Pair

Two Americans imprisoned by Iraq are living in rough conditions in a cellblock with 200 inmates and three holes for toilet facilities, a Polish diplomat and a reporter said Tuesday.

The diplomat, Ryszard Krystosik, visited the pair in the maximum-security Abu Ghraib prison. They were sentenced March 25 to eight-year terms for illegally entering the country.

“They are well. They’re better than before. However, their conditions are difficult,” said Krystosik, who represents U.S. interests in Iraq in the absence of direct ties between Baghdad and Washington.

The prisoners--David Daliberti, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., and William Barloon, 39, of New Hampton, Iowa--were arrested by Iraqi border guards March 13.

Cable News Network correspondent Brent Sadler visited the prisoners Tuesday and said they appeared “more determined” but thinner than before. He said Daliberti is concerned about his health and was seen Tuesday by two heart doctors and two eye doctors.

Daliberti and Barloon, who worked for U.S. defense contractors in Kuwait, say they unwittingly strayed into Iraq while trying to visit friends at a U.N. post near the Kuwaiti border.

Khaled Jarjees, their Iraqi lawyer, will argue in an appeal this week that the men entered Iraq unintentionally.

U.N. personnel in the demilitarized zone along Iraq’s southern frontier admit they mistakenly waved the men through onto Iraqi soil, and Washington has repeatedly appealed for the pair’s release.