ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s justice ministry on Sunday said it is holding 65,000 prisoners across the country, excluding the Kurdistan Region and detainees held by security forces.
“There are 65,000 prisoners in Iraqi prisons,” ministry spokesperson Ahmed Laibi told Rudaw, adding that 85 children are also being held alongside their mothers in prison.
A total of 1,600 foreign prisoners are also present in Iraq, according to Laibi, who added that the ministry operates 30 prisons across the country.
The number excludes the Kurdistan Region's prisons and those held by security forces and different armed groups around the country.
Iraq is preparing to free many prisoners under a general amnesty law, which Laibi said the ministry will exercise once it is published in the Official Gazette.
The general amnesty, submitted by Sunni lawmakers, amended the 2016 law’s definition of affiliation with terrorist organizations. This change was a key prerequisite for Sunni blocs to agree to join the ruling State Administration Coalition. Sunnis argue that thousands from their community have been unjustly imprisoned in Shiite-dominated Iraq since 2003 over alleged terrorism links.
But the law is also caught amid a judicial row between Iraq’s top judicial authorities – the Federal Supreme Court and the Supreme Judicial Council.
On Tuesday, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court temporarily suspended the implementation of the general amnesty law and two other laws concerning personal status and the return of land confiscated under the former Baath regime to its original owners.
The Supreme Judicial Council criticized the court’s decision the next day as “premature and irrelevant.”
The three laws have created controversy since they were introduced in the parliament last year. After months of political bickering, the parliament passed all three in a surprise move on January 21.
The Islamic State (ISIS) seized control of vast swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014. During the liberation process, thousands of people were arrested for alleged links to the jihadist group, especially in Sunni areas like Nineveh province.
Nahro Mohammed contributed to this report.