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| Afghanistan |
| Karzai intervened to help aide probed for corruption |
| 2010-08-21 |
| Afghan President Hamid Karzai personally intervened to release a close aide arrested on corruption charges and under investigation for providing cash and gifts to allies, The Washington Post reported late on Thursday. The Post said that senior Karzai aide Mohammad Zia Salehi was also under investigation because of telephone contacts with Taliban insurgents. Afghanistan's attorney general approved the arrest, the Post said, citing several unnamed Afghan officials familiar with the case. Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer did not comment on the allegations, but Karzai's legal adviser Nasrullah Stankezi denied any presidential intervention to release the aide. Karzai's intervention came after Afghan investigators opened corruption cases against Salehi and "possibly other Karzai allies inside the presidential palace," the Post reported. The Afghan president is under intense pressure from his Western backers to tackle endemic corruption. Afghanistan is rated as the second most corrupt country in the world, better only than lawless Somalia, by watchdog Transparency International. However, in early August Karzai ordered a review of two Western-backed anti-corruption bodies, the Major Crimes Task Force and Sensitive Investigations Office, in order to bring them "in line with Afghan and Islamic values," following complaints from prisoners under investigation. The controversy over the two groups has created "perhaps the most serious crisis this year in relations between Afghanistan and the US," according to the Post. Salehi was arrested after a probe lasting months by Afghan investigators, a police team trained by the US Drug Enforcement Agency, and the US government's Afghan Threat Finance Cell, the newspaper said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on August 6 spoke with Karzai about the importance of the anti-corruption bodies, while US Senator John Kerry visited Karzai in Kabul this week to hammer the message of the importance of fighting corruption. |
| Posted by:Fred |