Afghan judiciary yet to assess dozens of large-scale corruption cases: Watchdog

Integrity Watch of Afghanistan says many alleged corruption cases of former ministers, ambassadors, members of the Parliament, and some other government officials yet to be prosecuted.

The Anti-Corruption Judiciary Center was established four years ago; its mission is to deal with large cases of corruption. Now, however, the performance of this institution is criticized.

Integrity Watch of Afghanistan says the Anti-Corruption Judiciary Center did not open and prosecute large-scale corruption cases involving ministers, mayors, ambassadors, and members of the National Assembly. According to the agency, dozens of cases have remained intact and pressures have led to them not being investigated.

“There are low-level and high-level cases of ambassadors, ministers, deputies, mayors, and generals, whose cases have been reported to the judiciary, including the Anti-Corruption Judiciary Center and no legal action has been taken against them,” said Nasir Timori, an analyst at Integrity Watch of Afghanistan.

On the other hand, it is criticized that from time to time events related to public corruption occur, especially in revenue-generating institutions and the process of revenue collection; But the perpetrators of corruption in these structures are not punished, and even the payment of money has caused the defendants in large cases not to go through the judicial process or to be imprisoned.

Mohammad Ali Akhlaqi, a member of the House of Representatives, said: “This center should have fought against major corruption, but like other institutions, it has not made much progress.”

Ghulam Farooq Majrouh, a member of the House of Representatives, said: “This institution did not do what people expected, there are still influential people and have limited the authorities of the center.”

It has been a long time since the court of the Anti-Corruption Judiciary Center has been held. The Supreme Court has not commented on this, But the Attorney General says all corruption cases have been handled by the prosecutor’s office.

Jamshid Rasouli, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said: “The cases that have been brought to this institution on charges of corruption have been carefully handled and hundreds of people have been punished.”

Earlier, allegations of widespread corruption were reported in Afghan customs, particularly at Islam Qala Customs in Herat, but so far the government has not commented on the outcome of the investigation into allegations of corruption and the prosecution of its perpetrators.