Iraqi inmates on hunger strike against abuse

BAGHDAD — Detainees loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have begun a hunger strike to protest alleged abuse in Iraqi prisons, a spokesman said Monday.

Complaints about mistreatment of inmates in Iraqi prisons gained widespread attention last week when a Sunni lawmaker who was a champion of prisoner rights was killed after delivering a sermon at a Baghdad mosque.

More than 300 detainees from al-Sadr’s movement began a hunger strike Sunday at the Rusafa prison in eastern Baghdad, spokesman Salah al-Obeidi said.

They’re hoping to draw attention to their plight and force Iraqi officials “to find solutions for their suffering inside the prison,” he said.

Al-Obeidi said most of the detainees have been held without charge for at least a year.

“Their cases are still unsettled,” he said. “Some officers demand bribes to complete their cases and release them.”

Government officials could not immediately be reached to comment on the hunger strike or the allegations.

The issue has come to the fore as the United States has begun to turn over control to the Iraqis of thousands of security detainees in its custody under a new security pact that would end the U.S. mission in Iraq by 2012.

The United Nations has expressed concern about overcrowding and “grave human rights violations” of detainees in Iraqi custody. It called for thorough investigations of reports of mistreatment and torture.

Dozens of relatives and supporters of the inmates staged a protest Monday in front of the Iraqi army’s headquarters where the Rusafa prison is located.

Militiamen loyal to al-Sadr have been blamed in some of the worst sectarian violence and waged fierce battles with American and Iraqi forces until the anti-U.S. cleric declared a cease-fire in 2007. Many were rounded up as part of government crackdowns last spring.

Munna al-Saadi said her husband has been in the prison for seven months without charge.

“The army arrested them because they belong to al-Sadr’s movement,” she said. “I visited my husband in the prison many times and he informed me that he and other detainees are exposed to mistreatment and abuse.”

Harith al-Obeidi, the head of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, was slain Friday after delivering a sermon that raised the issue of prisoner abuse.

Colleagues said he had called on parliament to summon interior and defense ministry officials to answer the allegations of torture in Iraqi jails.

Al-Obeidi was known for being an outspoken advocate of rights for both Sunni and Shiite prisoners, including al-Sadr’s followers.

The Interior Ministry has blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for his killing, but some Sadrist lawmakers suggested it may have been retaliation for his campaign on behalf of detainees.

In violence Monday, a bomb attached to a minibus exploded during morning rush hour in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding nine others, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

Associated Press Writers Hamid Ahmed and Saad Abdul-Kadir contributed to this report.