Tikrit prison fugitive captured, search is still on for 7 more

SALAH AL-DIN / IraqiNews.com: A police force in Tirkrit captured yet another fugitive who had escaped from the anti-terror prison in the city and the search is still on for seven more, a local security source said on Saturday. “The fugitive was arrested on Saturday evening in the area of al-Qadissiya upon intelligence tip-offs on his whereabouts,” the source told Iraqi News. “The arrested fugitive confessed that one of the officers in the prison has helped them escape,” the source added. Nine out of 16 fugitives who belong to the Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) network had been arrested so far after they escaped from the anti-terror facility in central Tikrit on Tuesday (Sept. 22). Five among the 16 prisoners are condemned to death. Col. Hatem Akram, the Salah al-Din police spokesman, had told Aswat al-Iraq on Saturday that the police arrested Kahlan Ali Obeid in the area of Hawi, al-Dor district. “Hawi had received three death sentences after he was found guilty of committing several murders of civilians, policemen and sahwa (awakening) tribal fighters in the areas of al-Dalouiya, Balad and al-Moatassem,” Akram said. He added that also fugitive Bakr al-Samarraie was arrested near the city of Samarra.Earlier , a source from the Iraqi Reformatory Department said that the Justice Ministry has no prisons in the province of Salah al-Din, noting the prison that witnessed the flight of 16 inmates on Tuesday belongs to the Interior Ministry.“The department’s 29 prisons are spread all over the Iraqi provinces including those of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. They include three prisons for women in the provinces of Baghdad , Thi-Qar, and al-Muthanna, but the department has no prisons in Salah al-Din,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq. Tikrit, the capital city of Salah al-Din province, lies 175 km north of Baghdad . AmR (S)/SR 1