Amnesty Law does not cover inmates convicted in Speicher massacre, prison official says
Shafaq News – Dhi Qar
The administration of Nasiriyah Central Prison on Wednesday dismissed as false a document circulating online claiming inmates convicted in the 2014 Speicher massacre were included in Iraq’s newly approved Amnesty Law.
The massacre, one of Iraq’s deadliest atrocities, took place in June 2014 when ISIS executed around 2,000 military cadets and security personnel at the Speicher Air Base in Saladin province after seizing control of the area. The extremist group released footage showing its fighters rounding up and shooting the captives at close range.
Read more: The river remembers: 11 years since Speicher massacre
Hussein Ahmed Baniyah, director of Nasiriyah Prison, told Shafaq News that the document was fabricated and that “two paragraphs mentioning the inclusion of inmates convicted in the Speicher case were added fraudulently.” He stressed that the paper “has no connection to any official correspondence issued by the prison administration.”
Baniyah clarified that the transfer of inmates to courts for review under the Amnesty Law is a routine judicial process and “does not mean they are being released or covered by the law,” confirming that “no inmates convicted in the Speicher massacre have been freed.”
Read more: Beyond "Innocent People": unpacking Iraq's New Amnesty Law
