WORLD> Middle East
UNAMA highlights Afghan prisoners' plight
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-02 17:02
KABUL -- United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in a report received on Tuesday has highlighted the ordeals of prisoners in post-Taliban jails.

The prison population in Afghanistan, the report added, had been growing as more and more people are put behind bars.

In 2001, in this country there were around 600 prisoners in Afghanistan. Today there are around 12,500 and out of them 350 are women, it further said.

"Pre-trial detention is supposed to be the exception, not the rule. But here it is more the rule, especially if you are poor and without powerful friends," the report of entity quoted Christina Oguz, the head of United Nations Office on Drug and Crime as saying.

Oguz, according to the statement, also added that, "If you have a powerful friend and commit a crime, you may not even face a trial. A phone call to the police who arrested you may be enough to set you free."

"I have called this 'telephone justice.' If you don't have these powerful friends you may end up in jail even if you are a child," she said.

The statement issued in the wake of the 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights noted that the detainees in Afghanistan in several cases are being held without sentences or after service the terms of sentence.