More prisoners released from abuse scandal jail

The US military released Iraqi prisoners today from the Abu Ghraib jail, the centre of a scandal involving abuse of detainees by American soldiers.

Hundreds of relatives watched as a convoy of at least 13 buses left the prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad. The US military did not reveal where the prisoners were going.

The release was the second from the facility since the scandal broke over the abuse of detainees last month.

It also came about a week after the first American accused in the scandal was sentenced to a year in prison for sexually humiliating detainees and taking a photo of prisoners stacked naked in a human pyramid.

Specialist Jeremy Sivits received a year in prison, a reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge – the maximum penalty – after pleading guilty to ill-treating detainees in the first court-martial stemming from the Abu Ghraib case.

Three others were arraigned and deferred pleading. They will appear before a military judge on June 21.

The military periodically frees prisoners from Abu Ghraib, which was also notorious as the site of executions and torture during Saddam Hussein’s regime. There are still between 3,000 and 4,000 people believed held there.

Following the revelations of abuse, US officials have said they plan to cut the facility’s population in half. But the military is still sending detainees who are considered security risks to the prison.