Nasiriyah Central Prison


Nasiriyah Central Prison, also known as al-Hoot prison, is a maximum security prison near Nasiriyah in the Dhi Qar Governorate of Iraq. It is the largest prison in southern Iraq.

History

The prison was built at a cost of roughly $49,000,000 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It opened in July 2008.

Prison conditions

According to Alkarama, a Swiss human rights organisation, "conditions of detention in Al Nasiriyah prison remain very poor and prisoners are systematically tortured on a daily basis". Iraqi officials have stated that around 1,200 of the estimated 6,000 prisoners held in Nasiriyah have been sentenced to death. The prison is vastly overcrowded since it was only designed to hold 800 prisoners. The prisoners are mostly Sunni Muslims detained for political crimes or alleged involvement in terrorism.
In February 2018, a report by the Baghdad Centre for Human Rights ranked Nasiriyah prison as the worst in Iraq for mistreatment of prisoners.

Notable prisoners