Justice wants Afghan Dutchman Abdul Razaq A. to go to prison for 12 years for the crimes he committed as commander of a notorious prison near Kabul. The man himself denies: “I don’t know who I am anymore.”
In the 1980s, Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul was packed with political opponents of the then communist regime. The conditions were already barbaric and, according to witnesses, became even more dramatic when A. became the boss of the blocs of political prisoners. He is said to have worked there between 1983 and 1988.
There were 200 people in a small cell, so you had to take turns sleeping. The food sometimes consisted of rice with meat in which the intestines of a sheep were still filled. There was one toilet in the hallway. Those who had diarrhea had to make do with a plastic bag, witnesses said.
Pulled out nails
Anyone who protested against the treatment by the guards was locked up in a ventilation shaft for a day and beaten by the guards. There are also stories of ill-treatment and torture. Sometimes people came back from interrogation whose nails had been pulled out or their hands crushed. “You wouldn’t keep your livestock like that,” said another inmate. In addition, people sometimes disappeared, they turned out to have been executed.
Many prisoners who did survive fled to Europe and Canada and were granted asylum. But after another change of power in Afghanistan, Abdul Razaq also ran off with his wife and five children. He was granted asylum in the Netherlands in 2001, a house in Kerkrade (Limburg) and eventually even became a Dutchman.
Requirement: 12 years in prison
According to Justice, this could happen because A. used a false name. But after the police launched an investigation in 2015 because there were indications that the commander of the infamous prison would now be living in the Netherlands, they ended up at A. in Kerkrade. He was arrested at the end of 2019 and has been incarcerated ever since. The trial started on Wednesday, today the Public Prosecution Service issued a sentence: 12 years in prison for the inhumane treatment of the prisoners.
“The events have left deep traces in the lives of the hundreds of victims,” says Public Prosecutor Nicole Vogelenzang. “By using a false identity, the suspect deliberately tried to stay under the radar. his victims are silenced. That has now come to an end.”
Now I want justice, that this man stays behind bars so that he can experience what I have experienced
Many of the former prisoners from Pul-e-Charkhi fled Afghanistan after their detention and now live all over the world, including in the Netherlands. One of them, political activist Abdel Wadood, spoke at the court in The Hague on Wednesday. His leg was broken in prison. That physical pain heals, he said. “But psychological torture is something you carry with you for the rest of your life. I still have sleepless nights about it. Now I want justice that this man stays behind bars so that he can experience what I have experienced.”
Abdul Razaq A., a frail 76-year-old man who was wheeled into the hall in a wheelchair, said he can’t remember anything from that time. “I’m sick, I’m dizzy in my head. I don’t even know who I am anymore. But I’m not the man you think I am,” he told the court. He even fell asleep once on Wednesday.
The trial continues on Friday. It is not yet clear when the ruling will follow.
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