QUOTE
US frees Aussie from the hell of Abu Ghraib
Natalie O'Brien
December 30, 2005
An Australian who travelled to Iraq to marry his cousin and ended up imprisoned in the notorious Abu Ghraib jail for "security reasons" has finally been released by the US military, after being held without charge for almost two years.
The Adelaide-based family of Ahmed Aziz Rafiq confirmed he had been freed and had fled Iraq with his new wife for an undisclosed Middle Eastern country.
But they accused the federal Government of doing little to help the 26-year-old former supermarket worker.
His cousin, Sameer Saaid, said the Government had not sent a representative to meet him when he was released from US custody.
"I asked them to assist him and they said it was family business ... 'We don't interfere'," he said, adding that they could have helped if only by expediting a visa application by Mr Rafiq's wife so the couple could return to Australia.
Mr Rafiq's family claim he was told he had to leave Iraq by his own means and apply for a visa through the embassy in Turkey or Jordan.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday the embassy in Baghdad was not able to issue visas because of the situation in Iraq. She said the Government had made several representations to the Pentagon and US State Department, as well as officials in Iraq, during Mr Rafiq's detention.
The Australian embassy had arranged for him to be released into the custody of his father, as this could be processed more quickly than if he had been handed to consular officials, she said.
He had been given the embassy telephone number so he could contact officials if he wished.
Mr Rafiq moved to Australia from Iraq as a refugee in 1999 and was granted citizenship. He settled in Adelaide and found casual work in supermarkets.
He return to Iraq in September 2003 to visit his father and find a wife. He married one of his cousins in February last year, 20 days before being arrested in the northern Kurdish region during a security sweep by the US military.
He was among about 150 people detained in the Kurdish city of Arbil after a series of bombings. Mr Rafiq was accused of being involved in the insurgency and was held at the Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca prisons, where US soldiers have been accused of abusing Iraqis.
The family was told in February that he was about to be released, only for the US military to ask Canberra for more information about him.
He was finally released last month after the matter was referred to an Iraqi court that ruled he had no case to answer.
Mr Saaid told The Australian Mr Rafiq had so far refused to talk about what happened to him while in detention. "He is OK. I asked how he is, how is his health. He doesn't want to talk."
Natalie O'Brien
December 30, 2005
An Australian who travelled to Iraq to marry his cousin and ended up imprisoned in the notorious Abu Ghraib jail for "security reasons" has finally been released by the US military, after being held without charge for almost two years.
The Adelaide-based family of Ahmed Aziz Rafiq confirmed he had been freed and had fled Iraq with his new wife for an undisclosed Middle Eastern country.
But they accused the federal Government of doing little to help the 26-year-old former supermarket worker.
His cousin, Sameer Saaid, said the Government had not sent a representative to meet him when he was released from US custody.
"I asked them to assist him and they said it was family business ... 'We don't interfere'," he said, adding that they could have helped if only by expediting a visa application by Mr Rafiq's wife so the couple could return to Australia.
Mr Rafiq's family claim he was told he had to leave Iraq by his own means and apply for a visa through the embassy in Turkey or Jordan.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday the embassy in Baghdad was not able to issue visas because of the situation in Iraq. She said the Government had made several representations to the Pentagon and US State Department, as well as officials in Iraq, during Mr Rafiq's detention.
The Australian embassy had arranged for him to be released into the custody of his father, as this could be processed more quickly than if he had been handed to consular officials, she said.
He had been given the embassy telephone number so he could contact officials if he wished.
Mr Rafiq moved to Australia from Iraq as a refugee in 1999 and was granted citizenship. He settled in Adelaide and found casual work in supermarkets.
He return to Iraq in September 2003 to visit his father and find a wife. He married one of his cousins in February last year, 20 days before being arrested in the northern Kurdish region during a security sweep by the US military.
He was among about 150 people detained in the Kurdish city of Arbil after a series of bombings. Mr Rafiq was accused of being involved in the insurgency and was held at the Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca prisons, where US soldiers have been accused of abusing Iraqis.
The family was told in February that he was about to be released, only for the US military to ask Canberra for more information about him.
He was finally released last month after the matter was referred to an Iraqi court that ruled he had no case to answer.
Mr Saaid told The Australian Mr Rafiq had so far refused to talk about what happened to him while in detention. "He is OK. I asked how he is, how is his health. He doesn't want to talk."