Judges clear photographer in Iraq and order him freed
An Iraqi judicial panel dismissed the last remaining criminal allegation against Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein on Sunday and ordered him released from custody, two years and one day after he was detained by the U.S. military.
The committee of three judges and a prosecutor of the Federal Appeals Court granted amnesty to Hussein, 36, saying there should be no further action on allegations that he may have had improper contacts with insurgents who had killed an Italian citizen, Salvatore Santoro.
The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
In December 2004, Hussein and two other journalists were stopped by armed men and taken at gunpoint to photograph the corpse and armed insurgents.
Last week, the panel dismissed accusations under Iraq’s anti-terrorism law. Those accusations, part of a file given to an Iraqi investigative judge by the U.S. military, alleged Hussein had cooperated with terrorists and had bomb-making materials in his house.
Throughout his incarceration, Hussein has maintained he is innocent and was only doing the work of a news photographer in a war zone.
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