Ibrahim Jassam: one year without justice

Neither Jassam and his family nor Reuters, which employed him as a freelance TV cameraman and photographer, have been told exactly why he has been detained by US military forces in Iraq.

Jassam's mother, Fadhila Alwan, said: "We asked his lawyer, we asked military officers, we've asked all the officials we meet, but not one of them knew why he's been in jail for a whole year."

The evidence against him is classified, but the accusations have to do with "activities with insurgents", said Lt. Col. Pat Johnson, a spokeswoman for the US military in Iraq, Reuters reported from Baghdad. The term "insurgents" in Iraq generally refers to Sunni Islamist groups, like al Qaeda. Jassam is a Shi'ite Muslim.

"In a year of trying to get specifics, we've heard only vague and undefined accusations - to me this is unacceptable," said David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief.

"It is only right and fair that any specific accusation against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to defend himself properly."

Jassam, who is being held in a prison camp built in the desert on the Iraq-Kuwait border, will eventually be released.

Under a US-Iraqi security pact, called a Status of Forces Agreement, the US military must hand over the thousands of Iraqis it still has in its custody as Iraq gradually regains its sovereignty more than six years after the US-led invasion.

Those facing Iraqi charges will be tried; the rest freed.

The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled last November there was no case against Jassam. But the US military says it considers Jassam a security threat to Iraq. It says that under the security agreement it is entitled to hold Jassam as long as possible.

"Though we appreciate the decision of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in the Ibrahim Jassam case, their decision does not negate the intelligence information that currently lists him as a threat to Iraqi security and stability," Johnson said.

Reuters argues the US army is misinterpreting its remit.

"Ibrahim Jassam has never been charged by the US military or the Iraqi authorities, and has never had a single piece of evidence or even a specific allegation of wrongdoing presented to him," said Thomson Reuters deputy general counsel Thomas Kim.

"We believe this is not consistent with the spirit behind either the Status of Forces Agreement ... or the Rule of Law." The US military detained many Iraqi journalists during the sectarian slaughter and insurgency unleashed by the 2003 invasion. None have been known to have been charged.

Journalists rights groups say US forces may be misinterpreting legitimate journalistic activities in war zones. Taking pictures of Shi'ite militiamen battling US troops, for example, might look like enemy propaganda to a US soldier.

"The year-long detention of Ibrahim Jassam without charge or due process is not only unjust it also undermines the ability of the US government to effectively advocate for press freedom around the world," said Joel Simon of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

The US military said it expected all high security threat detainees to go before an Iraqi judge starting in December 2009. The intelligence information against Jassam will be aired then. ■