Prisoners handed over by Canadians appear to have been spared from abuse
A blistering report by the United Nations found Afghan prisons are home to the “systematic torture” of detainees by the Afghan intelligence service and the Afghan National Police. “Use of interrogation methods, including suspension, beatings, electric shock, stress positions and threatened sexual assault,” the report noted, “is unacceptable by any standard of international human rights law.” Of the 324 security-related detainees the UN interviewed, 89 had been handed over to the Afghan intelligence service or the police by international military forces, and in 19 cases, the men were tortured once they were in Afghan custody. Prisoners handed over by Canadian troops, however, appear to have been spared the abuses. An unnamed detainee, who says he was tortured by members of the Afghan National Directorate of Security, was quoted as saying that For those arrested by Canadians, two NDS officials were allocated for further interrogation and those interrogated by them never complained about ill-treatment by NDS officials.”