Aussie's freedom denied in Iraq
By Trudy Harris
February 25, 2005
From:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12364801-421,00.html
AN Australian held without charge in Iraq will remain behind bars after the US military reversed earlier advice that it was planning to release him.
Ahmed Aziz Rafiq, from Adelaide, has been held for more than a year in Iraqi prisons, including the notorious Abu Ghraib, after his arrest in a security swoop in the country's north.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade informed Mr Rafiq's Adelaide family this month that he was expected to be released within days following advice from its US counterparts.
But a DFAT spokesman said yesterday the US military had since advised Australia that it required more information about Mr Rafiq.
The spokesman said Australian consular officials in Washington and Baghdad were now "seeking clarification of this request".
The spokesman said officials had also emphasised to the US that if they did not intend charging Mr Rafiq, he should be released without delay.
Mr Rafiq, a casual worker in supermarkets, left Adelaide in September 2003, telling his family he intended to find a wife in Iraq and return with her. He was married 20 days before his arrest in February last year in Erbil by Kurdish authorities.
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