Twenty Iranian prisoners were on the run on Monday after escaping from an Iraqi prison holding suspected illegal immigrants near the long and porous land border between the two countries.

“Twenty-four prisoners escaped, although we have since re-arrested four of them. They escaped by breaking a window,” a lieutenant in the Iraqi border guards told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Some of the prisoners, who broke out on Sunday, were being held on remand awaiting trial and others had already had been sentenced to six-month terms for crossing the border illegally, he sadi.

Police at the 120-prisoner facility in the eastern Iraqi town of Badra have launched an investigation amid suspicions that guards may have colluded in the escape.


AFP

Güncelleme Tarihi: 16 Temmuz 2007, 15:40