Trial Starts for Former Afghan Spy Chief
A former intelligence chief went on trial here Monday on charges that he ordered the killing of hundreds of Afghans during the nation’s communist era.
Assadullah Sarwari was arrested in 1992, when Islamic guerrillas gained control of Kabul after Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan. He was held by the Northern Alliance after the capital fell to the Taliban in 1996 and returned to a Kabul jail cell after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001.
Sarwari headed the government’s feared intelligence department beginning in 1978 under President Nur Mohammed Taraki, Afghani stan’s first communist ruler.
At the National Security Court on Monday, a prosecutor played a brief video in which documents were shown and a voice-over accused Sarwari of ordering the killing of 350 people, including some executed at Pul-i-Charkhi prison outside Kabul.
It was not clear why Sarwari wasn’t tried sooner, though many cases have been delayed through years of civil war.
After the video was played, Sarwari requested that the judge grant him a two-week adjournment to prepare his defense. There was no defense lawyer.
Before the trial started, Sarwari, 64, told reporters that he was not guilty.
The judge fixed the next hearing after the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha in January.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
