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UN official blasts Iraqi government on illegal detainees

Thousands of detainees are being held in Iraq by government ministries in violation of the country's laws, a senior UN official said.

Gianni Magazzeni, head of the UN Human Rights Office in Baghdad, also said on Friday that the Iraqi Central Criminal Court, which handles serious crimes, has sentenced to death an Iraqi convicted of the 2003 truck bombing that killed 22 people in the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

"When I met with the president of that court before coming here, he indicated to me that they have not only apprehended but also condemned, sentenced to death, the person who was held responsible for the bombing Aug. 19, 2003, which saw (top U.N. envoy) Sergio Vieira de Mello and other colleagues killed," Magazzeni told reporters during a visit to Geneva.

"That individual, who is allegedly a member of the al-Qaeda network for Mosul, an Iraqi national, is now appealing that death sentence," he said.

He did not give he name of the person, and it was unclear whether it was the individual sought in an arrest warrant disclosed last year. The US military said in December that Iraq had issued an arrest warrant naming Mullah Halgurd al-Khabir as the "prime suspect" in the UN bombing.

Magazzeni said US-led multinational forces were holding 14,222 detainees in Iraq at the end of February, and that more than 15,000 were being held by the Iraqis. The UN Human Rights Office in Baghdad is concerned about both groups, he said.

Only the country's justice ministry is permitted to hold detainees for longer than 72 hours, but Magazzeni said most Iraqi-held detainees are under the control of other government officials, citing Iraq's interior and defense ministries.

"Those are still in the thousands and would be not in a situation which is in line with Iraqi law," he told reporters at the UN's European headquarters in Geneva. Magazzeni, who took over the post in mid-February, was visiting Geneva and said he was on his way back to Baghdad.

The nearly 15,000 being held by multinational forces for "imperative reasons of security" also is "way too high," Magazzeni said.

"We're working very closely with them [the US-led multinational forces] to try to see that number brought down in a very substantive way," he said.

They should be brought before an Iraqi judge and be found guilty or be released if they are innocent, Magazzeni said.

"We want to see that process speed up," he said.

The global body is assisting government efforts to establish the rule of law in Iraq, a task Magazzeni said was "very arduous."
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