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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Afghan war crimes suspect goes on trial in the Netherlands

Wednesday’s hearing could only proceed in hour-long blocks, with 30-minute breaks, because the 76-year-old defendant is in such poor health.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — The trial of an Afghan man accused of abusing prisoners in the 1980s kicked off in the Netherlands on Wednesday. 

Abdul Razzaq Rafief, who came to the Netherlands as a refugee in 2001, has been charged with war crimes for allegedly overseeing the torture of prisoners at the infamous Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, where he worked as its top commander for seven years. 

The 76-year-old claims it is a case of mistaken identity.

“I am not the person you are looking for,” he told The Hague District Court. “I don’t remember anything, not even my own name.”

Rafief arrived in the courtroom in a wheelchair and the hearing could only be held in hour-long blocks, with 30-minute breaks, because he is in such frail condition.

Dutch authorities arrested the father of four in 2019 after posts appeared online claiming the former prison chief was living in Kerkrade, a small town along the border with Germany. Under a legal principle known as universal jurisdiction, countries can prosecute offenders of very serious crimes, even if they did not occur within their territory. 

The three-judge panel spent most of Wednesday presenting evidence collected during the investigation. The Dutch legal system is an inquisitorial system where the court is involved in the investigation of the crime, as opposed to the U.S. adversarial system where the court is impartial.

Investigators say they spoke to 25 witnesses across the globe as well as using open-source material. At the end of the hearing, an unnamed witness, present in the courtroom, described ongoing health problems he claims stem from his time in the prison, including difficulty sleeping and concentrating. 

Prosecutors claim that the defendant's real name is Abdul Razzaq Arif and he hid his identity when he applied for asylum. According to investigators, documents collected during a search of his house show that Arif is his name and there was evidence that his military service records had been altered to hide his true identity. 

Rafief’s lawyers argued that, if his trial is to go forward, it should take place in Afghanistan, not in the Netherlands under universal jurisdiction, because the country was not at war at the time. Prosecutors will have to prove that the decade-long dispute between a Mujahedeen insurgency, backed by the United States, and the Afghanistan government with assistance from the Soviet Union, qualifies as an armed conflict. The prosecution maintains it was a civil war, but the defense contends it was an insurgent action that doesn’t rise to the level of war.

Most universal jurisdiction cases in the Netherlands have focused on Syrian refugees, many of whom came to the country during the ongoing civil war. Last year, the Hague District Court convicted a Syrian asylum-seeker of committing war crimes for participating in the execution of a Syrian government official in 2012, a killing that was captured on video.

Other European countries have also pursued such cases. A court in the German city of Koblenz convicted a senior Syrian official of murder and torture last month and a Paris court convicted a Rwandan man of genocide for driving militants during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide in December. 

Universal jurisdiction cases typically see people residing in a country or with a connection to it charged, but in 2019 Swedish authorities arrested an Iranian man who was visiting the country. His trial, for overseeing mass executions during the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, is still ongoing. 

If convicted, Rafief could be sentenced to life in prison. 

Follow @mollyquell
Categories / Criminal, International, Trials

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