US Army Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr. was convicted Feb. 20 on charges stemming from the 2007 deaths of four Iraqi detainees, and was given a life sentence at a court-martial at a US military base in Germany. Leahy will have a possibility of parole after being dishonorably discharged, having his rank reduced to private, and forfeiting his pay. The medic from Illinois had admitted to shooting one of the prisoners but pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, and obstruction of justice, claiming his lack of sleep and long-term presence in a war zone had made him unable to reason properly.

The Iraqi government has reopened the prison formerly called Abu Ghraib, promising to operate the facility by international standards and allow inspections by humanitarian groups. In a tour for members of the media Feb. 21, officials said they hoped to temper the strong feelings many Iraqis hold toward the prison with a new name, Baghdad Central Prison, and renovations including fresh paint, exercise equipment, and a library. The facility currently holds 300 prisoners, but officials expect to reach a capacity more than 12,000 once improvements are complete.

Judge Abdul-Amir al-Rubaie of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) Feb. 19 postponed the trial of Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist accused of throwing his shoes at former US president George W. Bush. The new trial date is set for March 12. Al-Zaidi's lawyers argued that Bush's visit was not official and therefore the charge of assaulting a foreign leader should not apply. The trial was postponed so the court could determine if Bush's visit was "official" and respond to the defense.

Four prisoners who were released from Guantánamo Bay and sent back to their home country of Iraq last month have been detained by authorities there and are being interrogated, Iraqi officials confirmed Feb. 17. "The government is reviewing their files to see if there are any charges against them," said Wijdan Mikhail Salim, the minister of human rights. She said that they will be released if not found guilty of any crimes. Following contradictory statements by Iraqi officials, rights groups have expressed concern about the condition and whereabouts of the men, who were initially detained by the US in Afghanistan.

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Barack Obama administration Feb. 10 to end the indefinite detention of journalists by the US military overseas. The organization cited 14 cases in which US forces had detained journalists for long periods—with one reporter, in Iraq, still incarcerated. Paul Steiger, chairman of the committee and a former Wall Street Journal editor, also called on the government to investigate the killings of 16 reporters by US forces in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. (NYT, Feb. 11)

Two near-simultaneous car bombs ripped through a Baghdad bus station on Feb. 11, killing at least 16 people, amid a flare-up of violence across Iraq that claimed more than 20 lives and left some 60 injured. Officials said the parked cars blew up near the bus station in the Shi'ite district of Bayaah in western Baghdad and that most of the 16 dead and 43 wounded were men—many Shi'ite pilgrims en route to Karbala.

The journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush, will face trial on Feb. 19 for assaulting a visiting head of state, with a maximum 15-year prison term, Iraqi officials have announced. Muntader al-Zaidi's lawyers lost an appeal to have the charge against him reduced to that of insulting Bush, rather than assaulting him. (Reuters, Feb. 8)

Officials in Iraq's Kirkuk province charge that twice in the last two weeks the US military violated the security agreement signed in November by attacking criminal suspects without coordinating with Iraqi forces. In the first episode last month, US soldiers fatally shot an Iraqi couple in their home near Kirkuk after the wife reached for a pistol hidden under a mattress, according to US and Iraqi accounts. The couple's 8-year-old daughter was wounded. The shooting was reported at the time, but the charges of failure to coordinate emerged on Feb. 6—hours after a US raid in which a 58-year-old man was shot dead outside Kirkuk. (NYT, Feb. 7)