Three US Citizens to Face Afghan Court Tomorrow for Running Private Jail

Author: 
Agence France Presse
Publication Date: 
Tue, 2004-07-20 03:00

KABUL, 20 July 2004 — The trial of three US citizens charged by Afghan authorities with running an unlicensed jail in Afghanistan as part of a private “war on terror” will begin tomorrow, a judge said. Lower court judge Abdul Baset Bakhtiari said yesterday the three US citizens, who have been branded by both US and Afghan authorities as vigilantes, appeared before him Sunday for a preliminary hearing.

“They were told by the court what they were charged for so that they can make their defense ready at the main trial,” he said. They were given time to present a written defense and could have a lawyer to represent them, he said.

The three US citizens were arrested with four Afghans this month and charged with running a jail and unlawfully detaining nine Afghan citizens in a private “war on terror.” US news reports said one of them, former US Green Beret Jonathan K. Idema, was a bounty hunter who had formerly fought with Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan and may have been hunting senior Al-Qaeda leaders in hopes of claiming the substantial rewards on offer.

NATO troops in Afghanistan said they were duped into believing the men were legitimate Special Forces operatives because they were wearing US military uniforms, and had provided them with bomb disposal services.

The case has come as an embarrassment for US-led forces here already under fire for abuses of Afghan detainees, and has thrown a spotlight on the role of poorly supervised private security contractors in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani yesterday criticized the postponement of a parliamentary election until April, saying it was against the spirit of the constitution and nurtured public mistrust. Afghanistan had planned to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in June, but logistical problems, attacks by Taleban militants and the slow pace of disarming factional militias forced delays.

The presidential election, which President Hamid Karzai is widely expected to contest and win, is to take place on Oct. 9 with the parliamentary one scheduled for April.

“This (the delay) will create an atmosphere of mistrust and further deepen it, and I think this will not work for the benefit of strengthening law or stability,” the silver-bearded Rabbani, 66, told Reuters at his Kabul residence.

Afghanistan’s new constitution, adopted in January, called for every effort to be made to hold the two elections together. Rabbani said the decision to delay parliamentary polls until spring could harm Karzai’s prospects in the October vote, with disgruntled parliamentary candidates likely to lobby against him.

The Afghan government has pledged to crack down on voter registration fraud after finding civil and military officials have been buying electoral registration cards in provinces outside Kabul.

“Civil and military government officials in some regions are going around and collecting voter registration cards from people either via money or in the name of Hamid Karzai,” Karzai’s office said in a statement.

Main category: 
Old Categories: