Acquitted, then sent back to Abu Ghraib

A year after he was shot by US troops in Mosul and then sent to Abu Ghraib, CBS cameraman Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein was acquitted in an Iraqi court today.

A three-judge Iraqi panel ruled there was insufficient evidence against Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, who was filming the bombing aftermath in the northern city of Mosul when he was apprehended.

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The charges against Hussein were never made public but at one point it was said that he could get life in prison if convicted.

After his acquittal, US forces took Hussein back to Abu Ghraib and reimprisoned him, “pending final U.S. military approval of his release”.

If there was any doubt about who’s really in charge in Iraq, the case of this cameraman, who was found innocent on all charges by Iraqi judges and then sent back to prison by the US military, removes it.

Given that the US has sent judicial experts to Iraq to advise on the creation of an independent justice system, the message is clear: “Do as we say, not as we do.”