U.S. transfers control of notorious Abu Ghraib prison

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The U.S. military has transferred control of Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib jail to Iraqi authorities and the "prison is now empty of any detainees or prisoners", a government spokesman said Saturday.

"The Abu Ghraib prison has been officially handed over yesterday by the coalition forces to the Iraqi forces and the prison is currently under the Iraqi administration," Ali al-Dabaqh told reporters. A U.S. military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, said: "Coalition forces transferred operations of Abu Ghraib on September 1 to the Iraqi ministry of justice, effectively ending detainee operations."

Dabaqh said detainees at the prison had suffered human rights violations "during the former regime and also under the U.S. forces" and that Iraq will decide what to do with the facility in the future.

Abu Ghraib, on the western outskirts of Baghdad, was already dreaded under Saddam Hussein's regime as a centre for torture and gained further notoriety when it was revealed that U.S. forces had abused Iraqi detainees there in 2003.

Earlier this year, the U.S. military had said that it did not anticipate Iraqi authorities using the facility as a prison.

Nearly 4,500 prisoners were held in Abu Ghraib at the start of this year, but more than 2,000 of those were released under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national reconciliation plan, which he announced in June.

Curry said the rest of the detainees were "transferred to Camp Cropper in Baghdad last month, after completing an expansion and extensive renovations meant to provide increased security and improved detainee care and custody".

Abu Ghraib became infamous in 2003 when pictures of abuse at the prison, including some showing bloodied and naked prisoners smeared with excrement or forced to perform sexual acts, stoked anti-U.S. sentiment across the world.