Requested: help in the search for victims of the Shashdarak prison

Dear Sir/Madam,

On 14 April 2022, the Dutch Court found a former commander and head of political affairs of the Pul-e-Charki prison guilty of committing war crimes during the 1980s. The man was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 years. Under his leadership, opponents and alleged opponents of the then Afghan regime were locked up for years under wretched circumstances and without a fair trial. The only reason why the Court could come to this verdict is that many former prisoners came forward and told us about what they had gone through in the Pul-e-Charki prison. In other words: serving justice, doing justice to the victims and preventing that perpetrators remain unpunished was only been made possible by the victims who came forward and told their stories

We, the International Crimes Team of the Netherlands Police, are again investigating war crimes committed in Afghanistan between 1984 and 1992, this time focussing on a different detention facility: the KhaD’s Shashdarak prison. To achieve this, we need your help:

• Were you a victim or do you know victims of the KhaD at the Shashdarak prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, between 1984 and 1992?
  
  Then please contact us. Your help and the help of the Afghan community is vital if we want to bring the crimes of the 1980s to justice.

If you have any information, please contact us at email address: project.afghanistan@politie.nl or telephone number 0031 – 88 6623042. We can also talk to you in Dari, Farsi, or Pashtu. It is possible to share your story anonymously. Just tell us that you want to remain anonymous during your first contact with us.

More information about our work can be found on the website: www.prosecutionservice.nl/topics/international-crimes

Kind regards,

The International Crimes Team of the Netherlands Police