Dutch court sentences Afghan man to 12 years for war crimes
April 14, 2022, 5:15 pm

Dutch court sentences Afghan man to 12 years for war crimes (File photo: Pixabay)

The ABC news reported, citing the Associated Press, Dutch court on Thursday imposed a 12-year prison sentence on a 76-year-old Afghan man convicted of involvement in war crimes in a Kabul prison in the 1980s.

The suspect, identified as Abdul Razzaq Rafief, had told a court in The Hague that his prosecution was a case of mistaken identity.

Dutch war crimes prosecutors are convinced they have the right man after interviewing about 25 witnesses around the world and tapping the phones of the suspect and his family before arresting him at his home in the southern Dutch city of Kerkrade in 2019.

A court statement said that between 1983 and 1987 “the man worked in the Pul-e-Charkhi prison where at the time of the civil war many opponents of the regime in Kabul were locked up as political prisoners under appalling conditions.”

The Hague in Netherlands (File photo: Pixabay)

Prosecutors said he was commander and head of political affairs from 1983-1990 and kept political prisoners in cramped, filthy cells, where they were routinely tortured.

The statement said: “He treated the prisoners cruelly and degradingly and robbed them of their freedom at random. These are war crimes: he has acted in violation of international humanitarian law."

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At the time, Soviet occupation troops and Afghan government forces were fighting rebels backed by the United States and Pakistan. The Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989, but the Afghan government continued the fight until 1992.

The suspect stood trial in the Netherlands, under Dutch law, because he successfully applied for asylum in 2001 — prosecutors say he used a false name when he arrived and was granted Dutch citizenship.

He was charged with being an accessory to inhuman treatment and deprivation of liberty, charges that carried a maximum sentence of 20 years to life.

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The trial is not the first time Dutch courts have tackled war crimes committed in Afghanistan.

In 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the torture convictions by lower courts in The Hague of two high-ranking officers in Afghanistan’s military intelligence service.

Source: abcnews

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.