Afghans Decry Sentences for GIs

The Afghan government said Wednesday that it was disappointed with the “unexpectedly lenient” sentences U.S. military courts have imposed on American soldiers convicted of abusing two Afghan detainees who later died.

A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said U.S. military prosecutors should appeal the cases and push for harsher penalties.

One soldier was sentenced to two months in prison, another to three months. A third was demoted, given a letter of reprimand and fined. A fourth was given a reduction in rank and pay.

“The punishments given to those soldiers were very light and unexpectedly lenient,” said the spokesman, Karim Rahimi. “This is a very serious issue. They should receive severe punishments.”

A member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission was even harsher in his criticism.

“These punishments are a joke. They all should have got 20 years in prison or be sentenced to death,” Ahmad Shah Midad said. “A person’s life has been taken. They must be punished properly.”

The soldiers were courtmartialed in Texas during the last few weeks in connection with the deaths of two Afghan detainees at Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, in late 2002.

One of the two was a 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar. The other was Habibullah, who was about 30.

The Army publicly acknowledged the two deaths and announced in October that as many as 28 U.S. soldiers faced possible charges.

An autopsy showed that Dilawar’s leg muscles were split by beatings. Habibullah died of a pulmonary embolism, apparently caused by blood clots formed in his legs from blows, according to a June 1, 2004, U.S. military report.