(17 Nov 2005) SHOTLIST

Baghdad
1. Set up for the press conference held by Interior Minister Bayn Jabr
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bayn Jabr, Interior Minister
"I won't allow any officer even to slap any defendant. The (Iraqi) judiciary is the only body responsible for any defendant."
3. Cutaway
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bayn Jabr, Interior Minister
"'There were not more than seven people who were tortured. The number 170 is a big lie. There were only seven prisoners, some of them new and others are old."

Karada neighbourhood, Baghdad
5. Men standing outside the headquarter of al-Hawza newspaper, considered the mouthpiece of al-Sadr office
6. Sign reading al-Hawza newspaper
7. Set up for Abass al-Rubai, spokesman of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
8. Cameramen
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abass al-Rubai, spokesman for Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr:
"Al-Sadr's office has openly declared its condemnation and denunciation of the brutal torture of the Shi'ite and Sunni detainees in one of the Interior Ministry lockups."
10. Mural for Shi'ite clerics

Gazalia neighbourhood, Baghdad
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdul-Salam al-Kubeisi, member of Sunni Association of Muslim scholars
"At a time the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq declares that it has evidence and proof that there are dozens of prisons, in which various kinds of brutal torture and physical liquation have been practiced, we would like to put down the following demands: first, we demand an international investigation into the prisoners' abuses, provided the current government is not part of it.''
12. Reporters

STORYLINE

Iraq's Shi'ite interior minister on Thursday accused critics of exaggerating reports of torture at a lockup seized by US troops last weekend, saying inmates included both Shi'ites and Sunnis and only a handful showed signs of abuse.

Bayn Jabr appeared with senior commanders in an effort to defuse a national and sectarian crisis which surfaced on Tuesday after Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, under pressure from the Americans, announced that 173 detainees had been found by American soldiers at the Jadriyah facility.

Some appeared malnourished and showed signs of torture, the prime minister acknowledged.

Jabr on Thursday insisted that only seven detainees showed signs of abuse, saying: "There were not more than seven people who were tortured. The number 170 is a big lie."

The minister went on to stress that those responsible for the abuse would be punished.

"I won't allow any officer even to slap any defendant. The judiciary is the only body that is responsible for any defendant," he said.

Both Sunni and Shi'ite clerics on Thursday condemned the prisoner abuse as unacceptable and called for an international investigation.

A spokesman for radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said his office "openly declared its condemnation and denunciation of the brutal torture of the Shi'ite and Sunni detainees".

The Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars also called for an investigation, but a spokesman reporters that his group would not trust the findings of any investigation in which the Iraqi government played a role.

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