ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Over 59,000 inmates are currently held in prisons operated by Iraq's justice ministry, including more than 2,300 women, according to the latest figures provided to Rudaw by an official.
“Nearly 59,000 inmates are being held in prisons under the Ministry of Justice,” ministry spokesperson Ahmed al-Luaibi said. “Of this number, around 57,000 are men and 2,300 are women.”
Luaibi added that 1,050 prisoners are foreign nationals from Arab and other countries.
A total of 30 detention facilities across Iraq are administered by the justice ministry, he said.
The figures do not include members of the Islamic State (ISIS) who were recently transferred to Iraq from northeastern Syria.
In mid-February, the United States Armed Forces announced it had completed the transfer of 5,704 male ISIS detainees from facilities operated by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria. The transfer operation lasted 23 days.
An Iraqi judicial authority previously confirmed to Rudaw that all transferred militants will stand trial in Iraqi courts.
Of the 5,704 detainees, 467 are Iraqi nationals, 4,253 are non-Iraqi Arabs, and 983 are citizens of dozens of other countries.
Luaibi also said that more than 41,300 prisoners have been released under Iraq’s General Amnesty Law.
In January 2025, the Iraqi parliament passed amendments to the General Amnesty Law as part of a broader legislative package that also included changes to the Personal Status Law and a property restitution law.
The amnesty law had long been a central demand of Sunni Arab political parties, which argue that post-2003 anti-terrorism legislation has disproportionately targeted their community.
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