After years of indefinite detention, U.S.-held prisoners in Afghanistan get right to trial

US prison in Afghanistan to hold first trial

KABUL, Afghanistan — The main U.S. prison in Afghanistan is less than a week away from an event many thought would never occur at the long-secretive holding tank for captured militants: a trial.

On June 1, a detainee will stand with a lawyer and plead his case in front of an Afghan judge, said Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, the deputy commander for detention operations.

His remark came during a tour of the prison Tuesday for a handful of Afghan lawmakers who have been critical of U.S. detention practices. The facility, which is on the edge of Bagram Air Field, opened in December and can hold up to 1,300 inmates. It replaced a smaller — and more notorious — prison that was inside the base.

The trial is one of the first tangible steps toward a pledge to hand over the facility to Afghan authorities and the latest example of a U.S. push to win over a suspicious population by being more open about what happens to the people it captures.

It also offers potential recourse to prisoners, who were blocked last week from challenging their detention in U.S. courts. A federal appeals court ruled that detainees held in Afghanistan cannot sue in U.S. courts as Guantanamo Bay detainees have, because Afghanistan is a war zone.

Military officials have said they were moving toward holding trials for Bagram detainees, but Martins’ comment appeared to be the first confirmation that one would actually begin. He did not divulge any details about the detainee who would be tried.

Up to now, the U.S. has only released Bagram detainees through a military commission, which reviews cases once every six months.

Officials are not guaranteeing a trial for every detainee, but Martins said they hope to try most if not all of the roughly 830 current prisoners.

Detainees who pose high security risks or whose trial would endanger intelligence sources will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis with Afghan authorities, he said.

“Something less than 20 percent are the committed, enduring security threats, and the remainder are accidental guerrillas,” Martins said, adding that even some of the serious security threats could be tried by the Afghan system.

Afghan officials and human rights groups have long decried the indefinite detentions of their countrymen without access to lawyers or a trial. Activists say that resentment against the practice has likely spawned as many insurgents as have been captured.

The deaths of two Afghans at the older prison in 2002 led to prisoner abuse charges against several U.S. service members. Allegations of mistreatment have dogged the detention facility since, even after reforms improved conditions.

For years, only the Red Cross was allowed to view the cells and observe prisoner treatment. But since the new facility opened, it has welcomed visiting foreign dignitaries, Afghan officials and human rights activists — both to see the facilities and observe the military reviews.

A group of reporters joined Tuesday’s tour, but no cameras were allowed.

Large metal cages hold about 20 men each. Prisoners in orange uniforms with wrist and leg shackles are pushed in wheelchairs to speed transit. The 45-square-foot (4-square-meter) solitary confinement cells have arrows painted on the floor to show the direction of Mecca. Prisoners shower in groups of 20 and have to go into a separate, smaller cage to use potentially dangerous items such as nail clippers.

It is not a happy place, but officials hope the new openness will quash rumors of torture and sleep deprivation.

“We’re trying to be transparent with the people of Afghanistan,” said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, who joined the tour. “Our experience with all detention operations from 2001 has made us smarter.”

The visiting parliamentarians said they were surprisingly pleased by what they saw.

“There are lots of rumors that Americans torture prisoners during interrogation, said Fazelalluh Mujadeddi, a lawmaker from Logar province. “That was not true. They have good living conditions and time to pray and read books.”

A one-way window into the small interrogation rooms showed a turbaned man conversing easily with a blond American woman, whose main task is to build a rapport with the prisoner in hopes of eliciting information. The most severe interrogation measure allowed is isolation in an individual cell, Martins said.

Still, Mujadeddi said he would be fully satisfied only when the prison is in Afghan hands.

“When this prison comes under Afghan control and all the cases go through the Afghan system it will be very easy to tell the difference between the innocent and the guilty,” he said.

A January 2011 deadline to hand over the facility has been pushed back, Martins said. The hope now is to transfer some of the holding cells to Afghan control by the end of the year and complete the rest by early 2012.

The new prison, named the Parwan Detention Facility to distinguish it from the beleaguered older prison, has been built alongside Bagram Air Field to allow the transition to happen. Eventually it will have its own entrance, separate from the base.

The trials present challenges. Detainees are blocked from hearing some of the evidence against them when it is classified. It’s unclear how much access lawyers and judges will have to this information.

In addition, evidence can be spotty if collected in the middle of battle, and it takes time to find Afghan lawyers to take the cases.

Between 20 and 30 of the detainees are not Afghans — mostly Pakistanis — and it’s unclear how and where they should be tried.

So even as the trials start, many prisoners will still be looking to a military panel to decide their fate.

Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.