U.S. military says to free AP photographer in Iraq

By Dean Yates

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday it would free a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer working for the Associated Press who has been held in custody in Iraq for two years.

It said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi, would be freed on Wednesday after an Iraqi judicial panel dismissed the last remaining criminal allegation against him and ordered him released under an amnesty law passed by parliament in February.

The U.S. military had accused Hussein, 36, of working with insurgents in Iraq. AP has repeatedly denied any improper links and said Hussein was only doing his job as a journalist.

"After the action by the Iraqi judicial committees, we reviewed the circumstances of Hussein's detention and determined that he no longer presents an imperative threat to security," Major-General Douglas Stone, head of the U.S. military's detainee operations in Iraq, said in a statement.

"I have therefore ordered that he be released from coalition force custody."

AP President Tom Curley expressed relief.

"In time we will celebrate Bilal's release. For now, we want him safe and united with his family," the agency quoted Curley as saying.

"While we may never see eye to eye with the U.S. military over this case, it is time for all of us to move on."