Shafaq News- Babil

A Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) force arrived in Babil from Baghdad on Friday, while security personnel searched the old Al-Hillah Correctional Prison for Men ahead of the transfer of several inmates to facilities outside the province, sources told Shafaq News.

Inmates at the prison staged a protest on August 12 that lasted about an hour before Babil Police Chief intervened. The government subsequently ordered an investigative committee to examine the circumstances surrounding the protest and the inmates’ demands, according to the sources.

Babil Police said the deployment of CTS forces and other security units near the prison was part of routine inspections at detention facilities under directives from the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights in Babil criticized the handling of the protest, citing “a lack of experience and judgment in dispersing such incidents.” It also pointed to possible complicity or negligence by some employees in allowing prohibited items into the prison and said “the facility lacked equipment and conditions required under Iraq’s inmate rehabilitation law.”

The commission renewed its call to permanently close Al-Hillah Central Prison and transfer all inmates to modern correctional facilities operated by the Justice Ministry. The prison, built in the 1930s, “is deteriorating and at risk of collapse,” while its location amid residential neighbourhoods in central Al-Hillah poses security risks and complicates the use of modern communications-jamming systems.

Read more: Iraqi prisons overcrowded, plagued by diseases, drugs, and torture, report finds