By NNN-KUNA,
Baghdad : All detention centers of the Multinational Force in Iraq (MNF-I) will be closed by June 2009, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani said.
MNF-I had vowed to close all of its centers in Iraq, including Camp Cropper, before June 31, Al-Mashhadani on Saturday told a group of recently-released detainees, adding that more batches of prisoners would soon be released in an “orderly and safe” manner.
The next two months would witness the release of huge numbers of detainees by MNF-I, he noted, pointing out that such move indicated that Iraq was on the right path to reestablish sovereignty on its soil.
Earlier Saturday, MNF-I had freed 100 detainees from Camp Cropper after verifying that they did not represent any threat to home security.
MNF-I’s main detention centers are Camp Cropper western Baghdad and Camp Bucca in the southern city of Basra.
The two camps group some 15,000 inmates, including senior officers of the ousted-then-executed president Saddam Hussein.