Cabinet orders probe into detainee abuse claims

KABUL): The Council of Ministers on Monday said it had directed the deputy interior minister to investigate a UN report that offered ‘credible and reliable evidence’ suggesting detainees held at Afghan-run prisons were being subjected to severe physical pain and suffering.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan released its findings a day earlier, alleging ill-treatment of inmates in Afghan custody.

Chaired by President Hamid Karzai, a Cabinet meeting discussed the UNAMA report and voicing ‘grave concern’ about the allegations.

It directed Deputy Interior Mionister Abdul Rahman Rahman to launch an investigation into the torture allegations, a statement from the Cabinet Secretariat said.

The 139-page report found “credible and reliable evidence” that more than half of those interviewed (in hundreds) between October 2011 and October 2012 experienced torture or abuse.

Earlier in the day, Rahman and acting National Directorate of Security (NDS) chief Hassamuddin Hassam rejected the UNAMA report as baseless at a joint press conference in Kabul.

They claimed the Taliban had advised their men in Afghan custody to keep complaining of torture and abuse to UN monitors. Rahman said Afghan jail officials had been trained at home and abroad on how to behave with inmates.

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