Baghdad: The US military in Iraq on Wednesday freed
an Iraqi freelance journalist working for the Thomson Reuters
media group after holding him for 17 months without charge,
the company said.
"How can I describe my feelings? This is like being born
again," Reuters quoted 33-year-old Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed as
saying by telephone, adding that he was greeted emotionally by
his family.
The journalist told agency he was "very happy" to be free.
Mohammed, a freelance photographer and video cameraman
for Reuters, was arrested after US and Iraqi forces broke into
his home in the town of Mahmudiya in southern Iraq in
September 2008.
A US army statement said at the time that Mohammed had
been "assessed to be a threat to the security of Iraq and
coalition forces."
But no charges were ever brought against him.
"I am very pleased his long incarceration without charge
is finally over," Reuters quoted its editor-in-chief, David
Schlesinger, as saying.
"I wish the process to release a man who had no specific
accusations against him had been swifter," Schlesinger said.
Several journalists working for foreign news
organisations, including agency, have been arrested and held
without charge by the US military in Iraq.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 22:45