AMMAN, Jordan (AP) Jordan says three Jordanians jailed in Iraq since 2003 over allegedly entering the neighboring country illegally have been released and authorities have flown them home.
A statement from the foreign ministry in Amman says the three were granted a special pardon following intense negotiations between the two countries.
The ministry says four more Jordanians included in the pardon remain in Iraqi jails. Another Jordanian was released and flown home last month.
Activist Abdul Kareem Shraydeh says the eight Jordanians, some of them students, had gone to Iraq legally before 2003. He says they were arrested in 2003 by the Badr Brigades, an Iranian-allied Shiite militia, allegedly for lacking proper visa documents.
They were tried and released by a U.S. military court in Iraq but Iraqi authorities kept them in jail.
