Karzai aide part of wider investigation, Afghan officials say
By Joshua Partlow and David Nakamura
WashPost
Thursday, August 19, 2010
KABUL -- A close adviser to President Hamid Karzai, arrested last month on charges of soliciting a bribe, was also under investigation for allegedly providing luxury vehicles and cash to presidential allies and over telephone contacts with Taliban insurgents, according to Afghan officials familiar with the case.
The Afghan officials also said that it had been Karzai himself who intervened to win the quick release of the aide, Mohammad Zia Salehi, even after the arrest had been personally approved by the country's attorney general. The new account suggests that the corruption case against Salehi was wider than previously known and that Karzai acted directly to secure his aide's release.
Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer declined to comment on the new account, which emerged from interviews with half a dozen current and former high-ranking Afghan government officials. The officials said they wanted the fuller story to be aired but insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case and fear of retribution. A legal adviser to Karzai, Nasrullah Stankezi, denied that Karzai had intervened in the release of the aide, saying normal procedures had been followed. Attempts to reach Salehi by phone and at his apartment were unsuccessful.
The intervention by Karzai came after the Afghan investigators had begun to pursue corruption cases against the aide and possibly other Karzai allies inside the presidential palace. A commission formed by Karzai after his aide was released concluded that Afghan agents who had carried out the investigation with support from U.S.-backed law enforcement units had violated Salehi's human rights and were operating outside the constitution.
(More here.)
WashPost
Thursday, August 19, 2010
KABUL -- A close adviser to President Hamid Karzai, arrested last month on charges of soliciting a bribe, was also under investigation for allegedly providing luxury vehicles and cash to presidential allies and over telephone contacts with Taliban insurgents, according to Afghan officials familiar with the case.
The Afghan officials also said that it had been Karzai himself who intervened to win the quick release of the aide, Mohammad Zia Salehi, even after the arrest had been personally approved by the country's attorney general. The new account suggests that the corruption case against Salehi was wider than previously known and that Karzai acted directly to secure his aide's release.
Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer declined to comment on the new account, which emerged from interviews with half a dozen current and former high-ranking Afghan government officials. The officials said they wanted the fuller story to be aired but insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case and fear of retribution. A legal adviser to Karzai, Nasrullah Stankezi, denied that Karzai had intervened in the release of the aide, saying normal procedures had been followed. Attempts to reach Salehi by phone and at his apartment were unsuccessful.
The intervention by Karzai came after the Afghan investigators had begun to pursue corruption cases against the aide and possibly other Karzai allies inside the presidential palace. A commission formed by Karzai after his aide was released concluded that Afghan agents who had carried out the investigation with support from U.S.-backed law enforcement units had violated Salehi's human rights and were operating outside the constitution.
(More here.)
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