Britain may begin handover of Afghan prisoners at Camp Bastion to Kabul

Off By Sharon Black

Defence secretary Philip Hammond says safe route for accessing Afghan judicial system has now been secured

British forces in Afghanistan may begin handing over prisoners to the Afghan judicial system in the coming weeks, the defence minister has announced.

Philip Hammond said that around 90 prisoners had been held at Camp Bastion for up to a year because Britain was concerned that they might be mistreated in Afghan custody.

“I decided last November that we should suspend transfers because there was one particular Afghan facility that we were uncomfortable about and we were not able to get from the Afghans a cast-iron guarantee that they wouldn’t transfer detainees into that facility,” he told Channel 4 News on Wednesday.

“So we stopped transferring them while we sorted out an effective and safe route for accessing the Afghan judicial system, something which we have now secured and I expect to be able to go back to the court within the next few days and put our plans to the court for their approval.”

Hammond’s comments came after Mohammad Daud Yaar, the Afghan ambassador to the UK, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One on Wednesday that “the principle of national sovereignty” meant the detainees …read more