Secret prisons exist in Afghanistan, but people should cooperate to identify them, said Afghan Justice Minister on Tuesday. Earlier reports have claimed that there was a secret jail at Bagram US airbase, but Habibullah Ghaleb Minister of Justice dismissed the allegations. He said there is a custody centre beside Bagram prison where prisoners are kept for two weeks for preliminary investigation.
Following a decree by President Hamid Karzai about covert prisons in Afghanistan, serious steps were taken and efforts are still being made to spot such illegal places.
"The specifications published by the media match with the detention centre in Bagram airbase. And based on penal codes a suspect should be confined before investigations are over," Mr Ghaleb said.
"I don't want to say [secret jails] do not exist at all, but to the extent of our reach and whenever we discover anything, we immediately take action," he further said.
A report by Open Society Institute based in New York had earlier spoke of a secret jail at US Bagram Airbase, in the north of Kabul, where it said prisoners are severely tortured and kept in solitary confinement.
Presently around 17,000 people are imprisoned in government jails including Bagram prison. It is said that Bagram jail will soon be handed over to the Afghan government.
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