NATO forces said it will stop transferring prisoners to some Afghan jails due to an unpublished United Nations report obtained by the BBC documenting cases of torture.
The report notes how prisoners in several prisons are beaten, shocked with electric batons, or have endured other forms of torture.
An official with NATO’s International Security and Assistance Force told the news agency the coalition “has taken the prudent measure to suspend detainee transfer to certain facilities until we can verify the observations” detailed in the U.N. report.
A deputy spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General, Dan McNorton, said the Afghan government is “taking the findings very seriously and proposing a series of remedial actions.”
McNorton said if torture and beatings have occurred in several Afghan jails, the authorities in Kabul said it “is not an institutional or government policy.”
The BBC said the report found that torture is widespread and most of those held in the prisons are militants. Some detainees were being held without any charges against them.
