Human Rights Watch says that Asadullah Khalid, the Defense Minister of the former Afghan government, is involved in cases of harassment, extrajudicial killings, and sexual abuse of prisoners.
Patricia Gossman, the Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch, in an article on Wednesday, July 3, called on the international community to investigate former and current Afghan officials accused of human rights crimes. In this article, she mentioned Asadullah Khalid, the Defense Minister of the former government, and stated that he frequently travels to the United States and recently received a golden American passport.
The article also mentioned Shaharzad Akbar, the former head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, who called on international countries to use their legal powers to take judicial actions regarding Afghan officials accused of crimes against humanity who have residence or recently traveled to European countries.
The article stated: "Based on legal principles, national courts can punish perpetrators of serious crimes regardless of where the crime was committed and the nationality of the perpetrators and victims."
Human Rights Watch, in the article titled "The Path to Justice for Afghans," cited the Netherlands as an example, which has taken serious actions against human rights violators and called on other countries to end the culture of impunity for human rights crimes in Afghanistan. Asadullah Khalid, the former Defense Minister of the former government, has not yet responded to the Human Rights Watch report. Taraz Press' attempts to get Mr. Khalid's comment on this matter were unsuccessful.
