Afghan man, 76, accused of abusing prisoners in 1980s

Abdul Rafief claims war crimes charges are a case of mistaken identity

The Pul-e-Charkhi prison building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Reuters

An elderly Afghan man is standing trial charged with war crimes allegedly carried out while he was in charge of a notorious jail where inmates were abused in the 1980s.

Abdul Rafief, 76, said it was a case of mistaken identity and he was not the commander at Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul.

He told a Dutch court in The Hague on Wednesday that he denied the allegations that as prison commander he abused political opponents.

“I am not the person that you are talking about,” he said.

Appearing in court in a wheelchair, the father of four said he could not remember his own name.

Dutch prosecutors urged judges Thursday to impose a 12-year prison sentence over his involvement in war crimes at Pul-e-Charkhi in the1980s.

Mr Rafief is accused of living in the Netherlands under a false name and being commander between 1983 and 1990 of the prison where regime opponents were held without fair trial in “appalling conditions".

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.

Prosecutors told judges that the suspect was commander and Head of Political Affairs from 1983-1990 at the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, where political prisoners were detained in cramped, filthy cells and routinely tortured.

Afghanistan's Soviet-backed government was fighting a guerrilla war against mujahideen rebels at the time, following the Soviet invasion in 1979.

The trial is the latest in a series of efforts in European countries to bring people to account for crimes in conflict-torn countries, including Syria and Afghanistan.

“This trial is about a man, whom we believe committed a number of war crimes in Kabul,” prosecutor Mirjam Blom said.

“We suspect that he, as commander and chief of political affairs, was working in the prison where inmates were arbitrarily robbed of their personal freedom and treated them inhumanely.”

Prosecutors said police started investigating in 2012 after blogs said that the former commander of Pul-e-Charkhi could be living in the Netherlands.

“Finally we picked up his trail. The public prosecution service has the point of view that he is here (in the Netherlands) under a false name,” said Ms Blom.

Dutch authorities spoke to 25 witnesses in several countries and used “countless” open-source materials. “We are convinced that we have the right person,” Ms Blom said.

Notorious for its grim conditions, Pul-e-Charkhi remained in use under various regimes until the Taliban freed prisoners from it last August.