Reuters active on case of Ibrahim Jassam - David Schlesinger

Progress has indeed been unsatisfactory, Schlesinger said in a message to The Baron in response to a posting by former editor-in-chief Brian Horton.

“Your readers can be assured we are working actively on this - in Iraq, in Washington and through the Committee to Protect Journalists (where I am a board member),” Schlesinger said.

“My position has been consistent throughout: if there is a charge against or suspicion about any of our journalists, let it be aired publicly. If there is a charge, let the journalist defend his name with the aid of counsel and in an open, fair tribunal. If there is a suspicion about his actions, let us know what it is: we will happily explain why our journalists rush to the scene of conflict instead of away and why they, and we, put such a premium on speed of response.

“We have no interest in harbouring a proven evil-doer on our staff. But I will not tolerate or accept innuendo or vague, unspecified charges against a journalist who has never done anything to cause us to question his probity.”

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Jassam, 31, is close to breaking point. His brother Walid visited him recently in Camp Bucca, the desolate, tented US prison camp in the desert in southern Iraq, it said.

"He used to be handsome, but now he's pale and he's tired," said Walid, who says his brother had no ties to insurgents. "Every now and then while we were talking, he would start crying. He was begging me: 'Please do something to get me out of here. I don't know what is the charge against me.' 

"I told him we already tried everything."

Jassam was seized by American and Iraqi troops at his family home in the town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, on 2 September 2008. They confiscated his computer hard drive and cameras and led him away handcuffed and blindfolded.

The US military rejected an Iraqi Central Criminal Court order on 30 November to release him for lack of evidence, saying he is a “high security threat”. No evidence has been presented. ■