KABUL (SW) – The de-facto General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Centres under ruling of the Islamic Emirate has announced that approximately 23,000 individuals are currently imprisoned in Afghanistan.
During the annual reporting event on Sunday, officials from the directorate revealed that 11,000 inmates are currently serving their sentences in Afghan prisons.
Mohammad Yousuf Mestari, General Director of the directorate, said that beyond those already sentenced, 12,000 individuals are currently held in detention centers awaiting court rulings.
“Currently, our department manages between 10,000 and 11,000 sentenced prisoners across central and many provinces, including 1,000 women and 800 children. Additionally, around 12,000 detainees are awaiting court decisions in detention centers,” he said.
Mr. Mestari added that Afghan prisons also house political prisoners and approximately 150 foreign inmates, most of whom come from neighboring countries. “There are both criminal and political detainees whose cases are documented by the Supreme Court. We also have around 150 detainees from neighboring countries, involved in various crimes such as fraud and forgery, who were arrested based on complaints.”
Abdullah Hamdard, Deputy Policy and Administration Officer at the directorate of prisons affairs, reported that over the past year, “a total of 3,243 individuals, both men and women, were released from prisons based on court orders in the past year. Additionally, 3,016 men and women were transferred from central prisons to provinces and vice versa”.
Officials from the directorate further noted that nearly 9,000 Afghan citizens are currently imprisoned in 12 countries, including Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, China, Turkmenistan, Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, with the highest number of Afghan prisoners located in Iran.
According to the directorate head, over 1,100 Afghan prisoners were repatriated from Iran, along with two prisoners from China, two from Yemen, and three from Kuwait in the past year.
