KABUL, Jan 7: An Afghan investigative commission accused the American military on Saturday of abuse at its main prison in the country, repeating President Hamid Karzai’s demand that the US turn over all detainees to Afghan custody and saying anyone held without evidence should be freed.

The demands put the US and the Afghan governments on a collision course in an issue that will decide the fate of hundreds of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operators captured by US forces.

Members of the Afghan investigation said US officials told them that many of those militant suspects were taken based on intelligence that cannot be used in Afghan courts.

The escalating controversy and demands by Mr Karzai appeared to be the most recent in a series of exercises in political brinksmanship, as the US-backed president tries to bolster his negotiating position ahead of renewed talks for a Strategic Partnership Document with the United States that will determine the US role in Afghanistan after 2014, when most foreign troops are due to withdraw.

Among the conditions that Mr Karzai has set is an end to night raids by US-led international troops and complete Afghan control over detainees.

The dispute that has unfolded in recent days mirrors many of the thorny issues surrounding the controversial US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay. There, as at the prison in Afghanistan, American forces are holding many detainees without charging them with a specific crime or presenting evidence in a civil court.

Detainees interviewed during two visits to the US-run portion of the prison outside Bagram air base north of Kabul complained of inhuman conditions and third degree of torture like freezing cold, humiliating strip searches and being deprived of light, according to Gul Rahman Qazi, who led the investigation ordered by Mr Karzai.

Another investigator, Sayed Noorullah, said the prison must be transferred to Afghan control “as soon as possible”, adding that “if there is no evidence … they have the right to be freed”.

US Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall said on Saturday that American officials only received the commission’s report after its press briefing. He said the US investigates all allegations of prisoner abuse.

“We will certainly take seriously the report and study it,” he said, adding the US was committed to working with the Afghan government on a joint plan to turn over detainees “in a responsible manner”.

Mr Karzai on Thursday abruptly demanded that the US military turn over full control of the prison, officially known as the Parwan Detention Centre but generally referred to as the Bagram air base prison, within a month. A spokesman for the president said on Saturday that he made the announcement in response to the investigation team’s report.The
president’s demand for full control of the prison so soon took many by surprise, since the US and Afghan governments had been working on a gradual timetable for transferring responsibility for the prison over the next two years.

Officially, US and Afghan militaries jointly run the facility, but the Afghan side controls a small portion with about 300 detainees whose cases are slated to be tried by Afghan judiciary. The US military runs the larger portion of the prison.—AP