New York prosecutors announced Thursday, October 7, the indictment of an Afghan Taliban, detained in the United States for a year, for the murder of three American soldiers and their interpreter in 2008 in Afghanistan, a country that Washington has just left after 20 years of war.
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Haji Najibullah, 45, arrested and extradited from Ukraine to the United States in October 2020, had previously been indicted for the kidnapping of an American journalist and two Afghan civilians in 2008. On Thursday, prosecutors at the Federal Court of Manhattan added
“terrorism”
prosecutions
for
“attacks on US troops led by Najibullah and Taliban fighters under his command,”
according to a Justice Department statement.
Justice points
"in particular an attack on June 26, 2008 against an American military convoy which had killed three American soldiers and their Afghan interpreter"
.
"During one of the most dangerous phases of the conflict in Afghanistan, Haji Najibullah was at the head of a formidable group of Taliban insurgents who terrorized part of Afghanistan and attacked American troops"
, lambasted New York prosecutor Audrey Strauss, cited in the statement.
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As for the kidnapping and captivity for seven months of a journalist and two Afghans, the Ministry of Justice still refuses to disclose their identity.
But at the time, in November 2008,
New York Times
reporter
David Rohde was kidnapped in Afghanistan with a translator and a driver.
According to the newspaper, which had managed to keep the news of his kidnapping a secret so as not to endanger him, he had managed to escape his captors in June 2009.
Ten of the 13 charges against Haji Najibullah carry life imprisonment.
After 20 years of military presence, at the end of last August, the United States withdrew with a crash from Afghanistan where the Taliban regained power.