The move, the largest prisoner release to date, followed appeals by Sunni representatives to start releasing thousands of prisoners who have been languishing in the jail for months without being charged with a crime.

President Jalal Talabani agreed to release many detainees, most of them Sunni Arabs, before the Oct. 15 referendum on the constitution.

Abu Ghraib prison, built by Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1970s on the outskirts of Baghdad, was retained as a major detention center by the U.S. occupation authorities after the occupation of Iraq in 2003. It gained international notoriety after a number of U.S. military personnel were charged with humiliating and assaulting detainees at the facility.

The Japan Times Weekly: Sept. 3, 2005
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