War crimes case against ex-head of Pul Charkhi Jail

The trial of Abdul Razzaq Arif, an Afghan man accused of war crimes in the 1980s, is set to begin in the Netherlands on Wednesday. Abdul Razzaq Arif is believed to have served in senior positions at Pul Charkhi Prison in Afghanistan from 1983 to 1990 and is accused of aiding or abetting inhumane treatment and deprivation of personal liberties. Accused.

Abdul Razzaq Arif was arrested in the Netherlands in November 2019 following a 2012 tip-off from a Dutch-Afghan national and a seven-year investigation. According to a report by ‘Afghanistan Analyst Network’, an analytical website, the case is a rare instance of an Afghan accused of war crimes being brought before a court.

A brief note from the Dutch Public Prosecution Service on 8 February issued which stated that the war crimes trial would begin in The Hague on February 16, 2022. The prosecution service, without naming the suspect, said criminal proceedings would be opened against a 76-year-old man suspected of war crimes in Afghanistan in the 1980s when he was held in Kabul’s Pul Charkhi prison from 1983-1990. He was the commander and head of political affairs.

“Under his leadership, (alleged) opponents of the then ruling Afghan government were held in appalling conditions, without (fair) trial for years,” Yan added.

Abdul Razzaq Arif, according to the Prosecution Service had obtained Dutch citizenship and had been living in the city of Kerkrade with his wife and two children since 2010. He came to Holland for the first time in 2001. Abdul Razzaq has now been in pre-trial detention for more than two years.

Like other countries, the trial has been delayed due to the Corona virus pandemic.

In the months following his arrest, AAN interviewed two Dutch prosecutors about how the Dutch criminal justice system was treating Afghan war crimes suspects, including Abdul Razzaq. In addition, he also interviewed two Afghans who were held in Pul Charkhi in the 1980s.

The interviewees said that Abdul Razzaq served in three different positions in Pul Charkhi prison from 1982 to 1987, as the head of the political unit of the Khad Intelligence Agency in the prison, the then Deputy Director General (Head of Education) and finally the prison. General Director of Prosecutors told AAN that they believe Arif has provided enough details to confirm that he held three positions at the prison, although it was not clear at the time when he held those positions. . The press release only referred to his role as ‘Commander and Head of Political Affairs’ in Pul Charkhi.

Allegations on Abdul Razzaq Arif

According to the charge sheet against Abdul Razzaq, he is accused of:

• were involved in inhumane treatment and deprivation of liberty
• In his capacity as a superior officer, he allowed inhuman treatment and deprivation of liberty, i.e. was guilty of these crimes

The charge sheet states that either alone or in concert with others, he “(repeatedly) violated the laws and customs of war,” including crimes such as:

• which result in serious bodily harm and/or
• Involved in violence against persons and/or
• Forcing others to do something, not to do something or to tolerate something and/or
• were manifestations of a policy of organized terrorism and/or
• There were illegal acts against a specific group of the population and/or
• There was a possibility of death or serious bodily harm to the accused and/or others
• Involved in inhumane treatment.

The chargesheet accuses Arif of abusing one or more of the 18 family members of former President ‘A’ (according to our 2020 interviewees, it was former President Hafeezullah Amin) who are being held in Pul Charkhi Jail. were detained as political prisoners. Abdul Razzaq is accused of the following abuses against detainees, either alone or in concert with others:

. Treated them cruelly and inhumanly and/or

. (repeatedly) attacked their personal dignity (and/or) (especially)

. Treated the above persons humiliatingly and/or

. They have been adjudicated and/or have had their judgment enforced without judgment in the past by a duly constituted tribunal which fulfills all judicial guarantees indispensable and/or recognized by civilized nations.

. Arbitrarily deprived them of their freedom.

Its actions are alleged to have caused (serious) physical and/or (serious) psychological harm, resulting in (among other things):

. Worse conditions of detention

. Physical incidents of violence

. Execution of sentences

. Prolonged psychological stress and/or

. Fear of being exposed to an atmosphere of terror and/or physical or psychological violence.

The conditions cited in the chargesheet at Pul Charki include overcrowding, poor daylight, inadequate toilets, spoiled and/or dirty food and drinking water, no or inadequate medical care, long periods in the cells. Isolation is included.

The charges leveled against Abdul Razzaq are serious, although they do not reflect the full scale of torture, abuse and killings that took place at Pul Charkhi during the years he held a command position there. It may be that the Public Prosecution Service does not have enough evidence to try to directly charge Abdul Razak with any specific, more serious war crimes. However, as the next section details, it has been extensively documented what happened in the prison while they were in leadership positions.

Documents on War Crimes in Pul Charki

Accounts collected by human rights activists reveal the scale of the crimes in the prison, which the late British journalist Anthony Hyman described as ‘a giant wheel consisting of eight multi-storey blocks, with a watch tower. And high walls divide the prison from the main road south to Jalalabad and the border, only a mile away.’

The worst abuses in Pul Charkhi, particularly the mass enforced disappearances during 1978-1979, when the first two presidents of the Khalki Party PDPA were in power, were in those years and indeed until the end of Najibullah’s presidency in 1992 when Abdul Razak allegedly Arbitrary arrests, torture and executions after unfair trials continued in prisons that held leadership positions. Babrik Karmel announced an amnesty for political prisoners when he came to power in December 1979 after the Soviet invasion, but according to a United Nations report, his government “began its own pursuit of suspected dissidents.”

At that time, according to a 1986 report by Amnesty International, control of Pul Charkhi’s ‘blocks’ was divided between the Ministry of Interior and Khad (officially known as the Ministry of Security in later years). Khad was established by the Soviet Union in 1980 on the model of the Soviet KGB under the leadership of Dr. Najibullah until he became president in 1986. Amnesty reported that political prisoners were first detained in KhAD’s own facilities and tortured and then interrogated. And sometimes after a long period of detention they can be transferred to a bridge:

Most of the prisoners interviewed reported that they were no longer subjected to torture after being transferred to the prison, but incidents of torture inside Pul Charkhi by Khad and abuse by prison officials were reported, particularly in Block One. Is.

An Amnesty report and another report by Human Rights Watch, published in 1984, described the torture employed at the time – severe beatings, deprivation of sleep, water and food, forced into stressful positions and prolonged periods of ice or cold. Exposure to water or sun and electric shocks, including to the ears, tongue or limbs. Amnesty said, ‘The torture by electric shock was reported from inside Pul Charkhi Jail.’

Punishments in the past

The documents on war crimes committed by governments and armed opposition groups in Afghanistan over the past 40 years run into thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of pages. Much is known about the atrocities and injustices inflicted on Afghans and other peoples. Yet Abdul Razzaq Arif will be one of a handful of Afghans accused of war crimes who are facing criminal investigations or trials. Most of them have been in Europe, including five other Afghans in the Netherlands, all PDPA, either Khalki or Parkhmi, a Hizb-e-Islami commander in the UK and an Afghan National Army officer in Germany.

In Afghanistan itself, only two alleged war criminals have faced trials. One of them was Abdullah Shah, who had been a commander of the Ittehad-e-Islami under Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf, who gained influence as a ‘senior politician’ and later a Member of Parliament after 2001. Abdullah Shah did not deny his role in war crimes but said he was following orders from the Sayyaf.

Abdullah Shah was secretly executed on 20 April 2004.

The other was Asadullah Sarwari, a former director of the intelligence agency AGSA, who served under the regime of the first PDPA president Noor Muhammad Tarkai (1978-79). Sarwari was detained by Shura Nazar forces after entering Kabul in April 1992 and detained in Wadi Panj Sher, until he was brought to Kabul and imprisoned in the Presidential Palace in 2005. Sarwari was found guilty and sentenced to death, but was released in 2016 under mysterious circumstances.

Dutch police and public prosecutors spent years investigating and preparing the case against Abdul Razzaq Arif. As the trial begins, one can gauge the difficulties of trying a man who allegedly committed crimes four decades ago in another, war-torn country.

Given the scale of the crimes committed in Pul Charkhi when Abdul Razzaq Arif held a command position, the charges against him are not too serious. However, a Prosecution Service spokesman told AAN that if convicted, the sentence could be up to 15 years for each charge, or up to 20 years if the ‘seriousness of the circumstances’ is taken into account. can

The trial is expected to last about two weeks.

Note: This article is an independent, non-profit policy research organization It has been published on ‘Afghanistan Analyst Network’ (ANN).. Kate Clarke has been a BBC correspondent in Afghanistan.