[The number of people set
free through corruption is difficult to track, in part because judges often
cover up bribes by requiring a letter — real or forged — from local elders
saying the prisoner about to be released will renounce criminality. This makes
it hard to prove whether the judge was moved by mercy or cash.]
 |
| A jail in Kapisa Province. Criminals in Afghanistan have been buying their freedom for years.Diego Ibarra Sánchez for The New York Times |
KABUL, Afghanistan — Early this year,
officials in Washington extolled a rare success in the fight against the drug
trade in Afghanistan: The authorities there had imprisoned a leading opium
trafficker on the United States’ kingpin list, Haji Lal Jan Ishaqzai.
The incarceration hinted
at a newfound willingness by the Afghan authorities to prosecute criminals
whose clout once made them untouchable. For those seeking evidence that the
United States had not wasted hundreds of millions of dollars propping up Afghanistan’s criminal justice system, here was Exhibit A.
Then Mr. Ishaqzai bribed
his way out of prison. He paid a lot — Afghan investigators suspect as much as
$14 million, although people who know Mr. Ishaqzai say the figure was much
lower. The cash went to a cross-section of people in the criminal justice
system, according to Afghan and American officials.
Investigators say they
are still trying to piece together what happened. But at its heart, the escape
was fairly typical. For years, criminals and Talibaninsurgents have been buying their way out of jail, for a
fraction of what it cost Mr. Ishaqzai.
The number of people set
free through corruption is difficult to track, in part because judges often
cover up bribes by requiring a letter — real or forged — from local elders
saying the prisoner about to be released will renounce criminality. This makes
it hard to prove whether the judge was moved by mercy or cash.
Still, there are times
when the corruption becomes public. Days after a Taliban commander known as Fauji was released in October, he
kidnapped the son and a cousin of the mayor of the community where he operated
in Oruzgan Province. He demanded 1.8 million Pakistani rupees, or about
$17,800, for ransom — exactly the amount he claimed to have paid in bribes.
Wali Dad, the police chief for the district where Fauji operates, said his
officers had overheard Taliban fighters bragging on their radios about the
number of corrupt officials they had paid to release Fauji.
“He said he had spent 1.8
million rupees on getting out of prison,” said the mayor, Abdul Rahman, who
negotiated with Fauji over the telephone for the release of his son and cousin.
“He wanted to charge me that amount.”
The ease with which
criminals can buy their escape has remained constant even as Afghanistan’s
expanding justice system and military lock up more criminals. “We detain
approximately 150 people annually who have committed murder and other heinous
crimes, and I can say half of them are set free through means of corruption,”
said Gulab Khan, the top police investigator in Oruzgan Province.
For the new president,
Ashraf Ghani, finding a way to quell corruption in the justice system is an
urgent priority if he is to persuade Afghans to trust the national government.
A 2010 United Nations survey found that more than half the adults who had come
into contact with prosecutors, judges or the police said they had paid a bribe.
In recent years, American
advisers helped the Afghans set up a separate police agency and court for drug
dealers. The goal was to insulate narcotics prosecutions from the rampant
corruption elsewhere. So far, American officials say, the approach appears to
be working, although it is unclear whether it will have any long-term effect on
drug trafficking here, which is soaring.
The agency, the Counter
Narcotics Police of Afghanistan, captured Mr. Ishaqzai after a shootout in 2012.
In the 1980s, Mr.
Ishaqzai, 61, began buying and selling opium paste, and in the 1990s he built
labs to refine the paste into heroin. When the Taliban were toppled in late
2001, Mr. Ishaqzai moved from Sangin, in Helmand Province, to Kandahar, the most
important city in the south. There he found a protector in the regional
strongman, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half brother of Hamid Karzai, then the president. Mr. Ishaqzai and his new ally lived on the
same street and often played cards together.
Mr. Ishaqzai’s situation
became precarious after Mr. Karzai was killed in 2011. That year President
Obama added his name to a list of foreign drug kingpins. Then Mr. Ishaqzai was
arrested by the counter narcotics police. While he was in custody, ministers
sought his release but were rebuffed, a Western counter narcotics official
said.
He was sentenced to 20
years in prison, prompting officials from the State and Justice Departments in
Washington to cite the case as an encouraging sign. But Mr. Ishaqzai was
already working toward his freedom. Investigators looking into his escape were
stunned to learn that Mr. Ishaqzai’s release was arranged with the proper
paperwork and the backing of judges. Officials said about 10 people — mostly
judges, but also prison officials, a court clerk and others — are suspected of
having a hand in releasing Mr. Ishaqzai.
In April, Mr. Ishaqzai
was transferred out of the nation’s largest prison, in Kabul, to a smaller one
in Kandahar on the order of the Supreme Court and the Interior Ministry. In
June, two lower-ranking judges signed a release order for him.
The transfer and release
orders occurred under provisions of the penal code that allow judges to
exercise leniency under certain conditions, though the law was changed just
days later.
It took a week for the
Afghan counter narcotics authorities in Kabul to learn that Mr. Ishaqzai had
been freed. Eventually, he fled to Pakistan, beyond the reach of Afghan or
American law enforcement. Among the many questions Afghan investigators are
trying to sort out is exactly how much and whom Mr. Ishaqzai paid for his
release. Zalmai Zabuli, an Afghan senator who has demanded a public accounting
of the case, believes Mr. Ishaqzai paid about $10 million.
An Afghan counter narcotics
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of his
job, said the authorities believed that one judge — who helped coordinate the
various government officials involved in Mr. Ishaqzai’s release — had received
a fee of $2 million, delivered to a relative.
A few people have been
arrested, including the court clerk who prepared the release order. The warden
in Kandahar, Mohammad Akbar Zabuli, is under arrest and being held in Kabul.
The two judges who signed the release order are under investigation by an
internal judicial disciplinary body, officials said.
The chief justice, Abdul
Salam Azemi, was forced into retirement in October, and several Afghan
officials say the Supreme Court was directly involved in Mr. Ishaqzai’s
release. The Afghan counternarcotics official said it was unlikely that only
low-level judges, like the two under investigation, had been bribed.
“Releasing a high-level
drug dealer is not the work of a junior judge,” the official said.
