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Over 24,560 prisoners and detainees in Iraq
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The total number of prisoners and detainees in Iraq has recently reached 24,568, a leading Iraqi Justice Ministry official has said on Sunday.

“The total number of prisoners and detainees in Iraqi prisons has reached 24,568,” Justice Ministry’s Undersecretary in Charge of Prisons, Boshu Ibrahim Ali, told the Saudi al-Sharq al-Awsat Newspaper.

He charged the specialized Human Rights organizations as having “exaggerated in citing the number of prisoners, as prisoners are divided between sentenced prisoners and detainees.”

The Iraqi official said that every “Iraqi prisoner costs the Justice Ministry 25 to 30 U.S. dollars monthly, to cover his needs for food, clothes, lodging, supplies and services.”
Sheriff Joe can do it cheaper than that ...
When asked about the delay in executing the sentences of some of the condemned prisoners, he replied “the execution sentence is issued according to a Presidential decree after the sentence reaches its final stage, after which the Justice Ministry must implement the decision and it would face legal responsibility in the event of its non-implementation. The Ministry is an implementing party for the Presidential decisions in this case.”

The UN Secretary-General’s Representative in Iraq, Ad Melkart, had stated last Friday that the Iraqi government had achieved what he described as the “implementation of its Human Rights commitments.”

“Certain challenges still exist, including the necessity to lay down a national plan for human rights, reaffirming UN’s continuation to support Iraq in facing such challenges,” he added.
Posted by: Steve White 2010-12-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=311635