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Afghan war crimes suspect says he is a victim of mistaken identity
A 76-year-old Afghan man accused of being the commander of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul in the 1980s, where he allegedly abused political opponents, on Wednesday told The Hague court it was a case of mistaken identity.
"I am not the person that you are talking about," the suspect, who said he did not remember his own name but was identified in court as Abdul Rafief, told judges.
According to the charges summarized by the judges, Rafief is accused of living in the Netherlands under a false name and that he is actually Abdul Razaq Arif who served as commander of the Pul-e-Charki prison between 1983 and 1990, Reuters reported.
Afghanistan's Soviet-backed government was fighting a guerrilla war against mujahideen at the time, following the Soviet invasion in 1979.
Prosecutors say Rafief was responsible for political prisoners in the jail, who were allegedly held in inhumane conditions in the facility. Guards under his command allegedly beat, tortured and executed prisoners, Reuters reported.
During the hearing Rafief referred all questions from the judges about his identity to his lawyers and said he was ill, dizzy and could not remember anything.
Rafief came to the Netherlands seeking asylum in 2001 and has become a Dutch national. He is being tried under "universal jurisdiction" principles, which say suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity can be prosecuted abroad if they cannot be tried in the country where they were allegedly committed.
The Netherlands has already successfully tried three high ranking officials of the Afghan military intelligence service for similar crimes in the same period in Afghanistan.
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Over 230,000 Afghan refugees returned home from Iran in last month, IOM reports
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported that more than 230,000 Afghan migrants have returned to the country from Iran over the past month.
According to the report, this is the highest number of returnees recorded from Iran to Afghanistan this year.
The report stated that this marks a significant increase in returnees, surpassing the previous high in May, when just over 190,000 Afghans returned,
Of the total returnees in September, 43 percent were deported, while 50 percent returned voluntarily, according to the IOM’s report.
“Inflows from the Islamic Republic of Iran make up nearly three-quarters of the total, with approximately 91,000 Afghans entering the country this week alone,” the IOM stated. In comparison, inflows from Pakistan accounted for just 29 percent.
However, Afghan immigrants who do not have residence documents are prohibited from working in some provinces of Iran.
Recently, head of Eslamshahr city's Labor Behnam Emami ordered that no immigrants without documents should be employed and only immigrants with documents can be recruited for hard jobs.
The forced deportation of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan has been going on for a long time, but it has recently increased
According to experts, the Afghan government needs to deal with the problems of immigrants through diplomatic means.
Earlier, Iran's interior minister said that his country is no longer able to accept Afghan citizens and emphasized that deporting "illegal" immigrants is one of the country's priorities.
The Islamic Emirate, meanwhile, has repeatedly asked the governments of Iran and Pakistan to deal with Afghan immigrants in accordance with international laws and good neighborliness.
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Daesh has training centers outside Afghanistan, Muttaqi says at Moscow meeting
He called on countries in the region to stop their citizens from being recruited by Daesh.
Addressing a meeting of the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan, Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Friday expressed concern that Daesh has established equipping and training centers outside Afghanistan.
Muttaqi said that the attacks claimed by Daesh in Afghanistan over the past three years mostly involved foreign nationals.
He called on countries in the region to stop their citizens from being recruited by Daesh.
Muttaqi also called the concerns of some countries about the existence of threats on Afghan soil “completely baseless," saying that it indicated an "information vacuum" or "distortion of information by saboteur circles".
"Our request is not to look at Afghanistan through the lens of outsiders, but to make sure you use reliable sources of information," he said. “We are willing to cooperate in this regard.”
Muttaqi also called on countries in the region to cooperate in preventing the smuggling of processed drugs into Afghanistan.
"We have been able to change the narrative in Afghanistan over the past three years from security concerns to development orientation, economic reconstruction, attracting investment and providing better services to the Afghan people," he said.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the meeting that Moscow wants to expand relations with Afghanistan in the political and economic spheres. He praised the Islamic Emirate's efforts to ensure security and fight drugs.
Lavrov also said that Russian companies are interested in investing in agriculture, mining and transport in Afghanistan.
He claimed that the US and its allies are attempting to use the United Nations to insert themselves into the Afghan settlement process and take it under their control.
"In this regard, I would like to call for exercising vigilance in relation to attempts by the United States and its allies to insert themselves into the settlement process in order to take it under their control, including by using the authority of the UN for these nefarious purposes," he said.
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Iranian official: Hiring foreigners is allowed only for hard labor jobs
He warned that violators will face action.
A local Iranian official has said that the recruitment of foreigners is allowed only for hard labor jobs and that is also conditioned on having worker visas.
Behnam Emami, head of Eslamshahr city’s Labor, Cooperation and Social Welfare Department, told Mehr news agency that even if foreigners have legal status, they cannot work in food and protein production, packaging and sales centers.
He warned that violators will face action.
“Employing foreigners in our country is only allowed in hard labor jobs and with a worker visa, and they should not be employed in centers related to food such as greenhouses and shopping centers,” Emami said.
He asked people to report to the police if they see any violation.
Emami said that employers who hire foreigners without a work permit will be fined first, and if the violation is repeated, they will be prosecuted.
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