Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric’s aide seeks prisoner release

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq, March 25 (AFP) - 10h09 - An aide to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has met with Iraq’s likely future president to request his help in releasing members of the Sadr movement held in US-run prisons, a source who sat in on the meeting said Friday.

Sheikh Ali Sumeisim met Thursday with Jalal Talabani and other leaders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party at their stronghold in Sulaimaniyah in the Kurdish region.

"He asked Talabani to intervene on the movement’s behalf with US forces so they would release the many members of the Sadr current that are being held in US prisons," said the source.

A ceasefire agreement between US and Iraqi forces and Sadr’s Mehdi army that followed a bloody standoff in Najaf in August, called for the the handover of weapons by militiamen in return for the release of detainees in US-run facilities like Abu Ghraib in Baghdad and Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in the south.

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