525 Abu Ghraib prisoners to be released

It will be a double celebration to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on 4 November for some 525 detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, who will be released on that day, according to the Iraqi human rights minister, Narmin Uthman.

An equal number of prisoners were already released on the occasion of the referendum for the Iraqi constitution on 15 October.

The Iraqi minister said that all the people who will be released were found innocent of the charges they were facing while in prison.

The Iraqi government also confirmed the reopening of the the port in Basra, which has been closed for the past four days following a fierce sand storm. The adverse atmospheric conditions also caused a delay for some days of the export of crude oil, which is extracted from the oil wells in the southern provinces of the country, AKI reports.

V.Y.