A former official of the hated prison of Pul-e-Charkhi in Afghanistan under the Afghan communist regime began to be tried on Wednesday (February 16th) before a court in The Hague for war crimes.
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Abdul R., 76, is accused of having been the leader of the prison located east of Kabul from 1983 to 1990, when opponents of the communist regime, which was then fighting, with the support of the USSR, a mujahideen insurgency, were held there without being tried, tortured and executed.
He had emigrated to the Netherlands in 2001 and then acquired Dutch nationality, before being arrested in 2019. He claims not to have held this position and to be too ill to even remember his name.
“
This is the trial of a man who we believe committed a number of war crimes in Kabul
,” prosecutor Mirjam Blom told AFP.
"
We suspect him of having worked in this prison as a person in charge of political affairs, while men were arbitrarily detained there and treated inhumanely
”.
Arriving in a wheelchair, Abdul R., father of four children, claimed to be the victim of a miscarriage of justice, not being the person sought.
"
I'm not the person you're looking for
," he said before declining to answer questions, saying he didn't feel well and wanted his cell back.
"
I don't remember anything, not even my name
."
Police began investigating his case in 2012 after blog posts claiming he resided in the Netherlands.
"
We ended up finding his trace
," continued the prosecutor.
“
We are convinced that we are dealing with the right person
”, who would have come to the Netherlands “
under a false name
“, assured the prosecutor, arguing that the authorities had been able to question 25 witnesses during the investigation.
"
Slaughtered at Night
"
“
Prisoners were executed without trial.
They were shot at night
”, according to the testimony of a victim read at the hearing.
“
The conditions in the prison were terrible.
There were often flies in the food.
But complaining meant your tongue could be cut off
,” reads another testimony.
One of the victims, Abdul Wadoud, 66, told the court that he “always has flashbacks to his seven years in Pul-e-Charkhi.
"
A broken hand, a broken arm, it can be healed over time, but not the psychological torture you carry with you for your whole life
,
"
he said, saying he had
"lost a lot of dear friends.
".
"
I want to tell you that the man here was the commander (of the prison) and it's a shame that he has no remorse
,” Abdul Wadoud said.
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The Taliban opened the doors of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison, which has remained in use under various regimes, when they took the capital last August.
They claim that the eleven blocks of the main wing each housed 1,500 inmates, within a prison originally built to accommodate 5,000. Construction of Pul-e-Charkhi, Afghanistan's largest prison, has begun in the 1970s. The place was denounced by human rights groups because of the appalling living conditions of the detainees.
Abdul R. is tried in the Netherlands in the name of the principle of "
universal jurisdiction
which makes it possible to judge people accused of crimes of exceptional gravity even if they were committed in another country.
As part of the same principle, a Syrian doctor is on trial in Germany, where he must answer for 18 cases of torture of opponents of Bashar al-Assad's regime and the murder by injection of a detainee.
The trial in The Hague is due to continue until next week.
A verdict is expected in several weeks.