Afghan president Karzai rejects US criticism over prisoner release
14 February 2014, 10:57
Afghan President Hamid Karzai rejected US criticism over the release of 65 alleged Taliban militants, his office said Friday.
On Thursday, 65 detainees were freed from Bagram prison, despite the US and NATO criticisms and warnings that the release would allow 'dangerous insurgents back into Afghan cities and villages.'
Karzai, who is in Ankara for trilateral talks with Turkish and Pakistani leaders, said that Afghanistan was a sovereign country.
'If Afghan judicial authorities decide to release a prisoner, it does not and should not depend on America,' Karzai was quoted as saying in a statement.
The US embassy in Kabul called the release 'deeply regrettable.'
'The Afghan government bears responsibility for the results of its decision,' the embassy said.
The US military called the release of the detainees a 'violation of agreements between the US and Afghanistan.'
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said there were 'serious security concerns' and noted that the detainees were alleged to have been involved in the killings of both Afghan and NATO troops.
In his statement, Karzai said Bagram prison was 'against the law and Afghanistan's sovereignty and one of the matters of tension between Kabul and Washington.'
'I hope the US will stop harassing Afghan judicial authorities and respect Afghanistan's sovereignty,' he added.
Released Afghan prisoners pose threat to NATO and civilians - US
The United States warned Thursday that the 65 alleged Taliban militants released from prison without trial by the Afghan government posed a threat not only to NATO and Afghan troops, but also to Afghan civilians.
'Many of these men who have been released, their primary weapon of choice has been the IED, which of course poses not just a threat to coalition forces and Afghan forces, but also Afghan civilians,' said Marie Harf, a spokeswoman at the US State Department in Washington.
The US believes that some of the individuals previously released from the Bagram prison already 'returned to the fight' and that the new releases could continue to 'fill the ranks of the insurgency,' Harf said.
The US has repeatedly called for all prisoners detained by NATO forces to be prosecuted in the Afghan court system and under Afghan law.
US calls release of 65 Taliban fighter suspects 'deeply regrettable'
The United States has harshly criticised Afghanistan's release of 65 alleged Taliban fighters from jail, saying it was 'a deeply regrettable' decision that could lead to further violence in the war-torn country.
'The Afghan government bears responsibility for the results of its decision,' the US embassy said. 'We urge it to make every effort to ensure that those released do not commit new acts of violence and terror.'
Afghanistan releases 65 Taliban suspects despite US protests
Afghanistan released 65 alleged Taliban fighters from jail on Thursday despite fierce condemnation from the United States, which says the men pose a threat to NATO and Afghan forces.
The release of detainees from Bagram prison is set to worsen the increasingly-bitter relationship between Kabul and Washington as US-led troops prepare to withdraw after 13 years fighting the Islamist militants.
'The 65 prisoners were freed and walked out of the Bagram prison compound this morning,' Abdul Shukor Dadras, a member of the Afghan government review body, said.
Ahead of the planned release, the US military said that the men were 'dangerous individuals' directly linked to attacks killing or wounding 32 NATO personnel and 23 Afghans.
But President Hamid Karzai has called the prison a 'Taliban-producing factory' and alleged that some detainees were tortured into hating their country.
Lieutenant General Ghulam Farouq, head of the military police that runs the Bagram prison, confirmed that the men had been released.
'They walked out of the facility and got into cars and headed off to their homes,' he said.
'We freed them and it's up to them how they left. We didn't prepare transport for them.'
Voice of Russia, AFP, dpa
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