Assadolah Vahidi, editor of daily Sarnewesht, was arrested Sunday on the orders of Afghanistan’s chief prosecutor based on a complaint from President Hamid Karzai’s national security advisor, without any consultation with the Commission for Media Complaints, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).
This arrest was illegal, in terms of the way it was carried out, the worldwide press freedom organisation said. Under the current media law, any press case should first go before the Commission for Media Complaints, which is the responsibility of the information and culture ministry, which then has the power to send a file to the prosecutor and to proceed to possible imprisonment of a journalist.
Even if the newspaper has published news that is inaccurate, the imprisonment of the editor of Sarnewesht and keeping him in custody until he apologises is illegal and is a violation of press freedom.
Vahidi was arrested on January 9 following a complaint from Rangin Dadafar Spanta, the president’s national security advisor and on the direct orders of Afghanistan’s chief prosecutor. The newspaper had published a report about the creation of an “armed group” by a brother of Rangin Dadafar Spanta. Chief prosecutor Mohammad Eshagh Alko, told the media that “this arrest has been ordered by the Commission for Media Complaints”, while the information and culture minister, Seid Makhodm Rahin said, “The commission had no responsibility for this arrest”.
RSF noted with concern that illegal detention of journalists is becoming more and more common in Afghanistan. Hojatullah Mujadadi, director of Radio Kapisa, has been in custody for more than 100 days, accused by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) of “terrorist activities”, without any serious evidence. Several other Afghan journalists have complained to Reporters Without Borders of suffering violent or threatening behaviour on the part of police or members of the NDS.
