15 May 2004	Saturday	24 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

BAGHDAD, May 14: Prisoners released from Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison on Friday complained of being hung by their hands from walls for hours and humiliated by grinning American guards.

One prisoner said two American soldiers had sex in front of him in the complex's hospital wing and another said he saw wires attached to the tongue of a cousin who was also being held.

The former inmates were part of a batch of 293 prisoners freed from the jail at the centre of the prisoner abuse scandal, a day after a visit by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Some 315 detainees were due to be released, but Brig General Mark Kimmitt of the US Army, deputy director of military operations, told a Baghdad news conference later that only 293 had been released. The remaining 22 would be freed on May 21, along with 475 others, he said.

The morning's first busload of prisoners left the complex, west of Baghdad, and drove past about 100 people waiting outside without stopping.

The bus, flanked by US jeeps, arrived 30 minutes later at a base of the US-trained paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) at Al Amiriya, on the western outskirts of Baghdad, where some of the detainees were set free. Other busloads were taken elsewhere in the country.

Speaking to reporters after he got off the bus at Al Amiriya, Abu Mustafa, 24, said he was arrested 10 months ago by US soldiers who accused him of being a leader of a terrorist group.

"They kept me in solitary confinement for six days," he said. "They hung me by my hands from the wall for five hours.

"One day when I was in the hospital, a soldier came in and asked if I was a Muslim and then started having sex with another (female) soldier right in front of me."

Mohammed Zadian, 45, said he was detained for four months and also hung from a wall by his hands for hours. He added: "I saw them attach electric wires to the tongue of my cousin. They also used to give me a box of food and made me carry it around for six hours without putting it down."

Mohammed Khazal, 31, who was held for eight months, said he went into the prison weighing 117kgs, and came out more than 30 kilos lighter.-AFP