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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s Ministry of Interior announced on Thursday the arrest of what it called the “mastermind” of Saturday’s prison break in Baghdad that saw the escape of 15 prisoners.
“Following field monitoring and information collection, a joint force from Counter Drug General Directorate and the Army were able to arrest one of the fugitives,” spokesperson for the ministry Saad Maan said in a statement on Facebook.
Both the fugitive and an accomplice, who sheltered him at his home in the east of Baghdad, “resisted the on-duty force,” Maan said, before “necessary legal procedures were duly taken against them.”
The “mastermind” of the prison break is described by the statement as “one of the most dangerous people accused of drug-related crimes.”
Saturday’s prison break saw 15 inmates held for drug offenses break out of Rusafa Prison in the northeast of Baghdad on Saturday night.
Security forces subsequently set up checkpoints in Baghdad and re-arrested several inmates, according to a statement from Maan on Sunday.
A video purportedly showing several prisoners trying to escape the Baghdad prison soon went viral.
In response to the prisoners’ escape, a number of senior police officials were sacked, including Major General Ali Jasim al-Ghariry Baghdad’s head of police. Major General Salah Mahdi Abdullah was hired as his replacement.
Those arrested were taken into custody pending an interior ministry probe. The ministry also formed a committee to investigate prison and police staff to determine how the inmates were able to escape.
The court of the Ministry of Interior has sacked five officers and three Rusafa prison employees in total due to "negligence," Maan said in a statement released on Wednesday.
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