Iraqi Ministry Reopens Cases of Murdered Journalists

The Ministry of Interior has reopened the case of scores of Iraqi journalists who were either assassinated or kidnapped in the past few years, a senior ministry official said.

Lt. Gen. Abdulkarim Khalaf said Iraqi police have begun investigating at least 49 files related to Iraqi journalists killed or kidnapped in the spiral of violence that engulfed the country since the 2003-U.S. invasion.

Khalaf said the ministry was coordinating its efforts with a non-governmental body on press freedoms with the regard to all the cases which it could not pursue in the past.

Scores of Iraqi journalists have been killed or kidnapped but none of the perpetrators has ever been brought to justice.

"We have initiated investigations of almost all the crimes that have targeted Iraqi journalists and issued orders to arrest the perpetrators," Khalaf said.

He said the ministry has many suspects in detention. “Some of them have already admitted their crimes and others were still being interrogated,” he added.