Iraq shuts down notorious Abu Ghraib prison

The Iraqi government announced on Tuesday that it had shut down Baghdad’s central prison, formerly known as Abu Ghraib, and transferred all the facility’s prisoners to detention centres in the central and northern provinces, citing security reasons.

Iraq’s Justice Minister Hassan Al-Shammari said in a statement that “the Ministry of Justice transferred the prison’s 2,400 inmates, arrested on charges of terrorism, to high security prisons in the central and northern provinces as a precautionary measure,” pointing out that the Abu Ghraib prison lies in a “hot zone”.

Another unnamed senior official at the Justice Ministry was quoted as saying that “the prisoners were secretly transferred over the past two weeks,” adding that “the government received assured intelligence of internal and external entities scheming to break into the prison and free dangerous prisoners, many of them leaders and warlords affiliated with terrorist organisations, most notably Al-Qaeda.”

Last summer, several gunmen broke into Abu Ghraib and freed about 1,500 prisoners out of the 5,000 or so inmates being held there on charges of terrorism.

The prison, located 32 km west of Baghdad, became notorious when it was uncovered that coalition forces were abusing its detainees after invading Iraq in 2003.

Iraq has recently seen a surge in violence including car bombs, improvised explosive devices and assassination operations that no one claims responsibility for. The Iraqi authorities accuse armed elements, mainly Al-Qaeda, of committing these acts of terrorism.

Iraq’s first parliamentary elections since the US troop withdrawal are scheduled to take place later this month. The winning faction will nominate the prime minister and take over the top positions in the government.