Afghan warlord convicted in UK for torture and murder

Faryadi Sarwar Zardad. Picture / Reuters

LONDON - An Afghan warlord has been convicted by a British court of orchestrating a campaign of murder, torture and abduction in his homeland which involved the use of a "human dog" to terrify victims.

Faryadi Sarwar Zardad, who was tracked down to the London suburbs after fleeing Afghanistan to escape the Taleban, is the first foreign national to be convicted in Britain of torture offences committed abroad.

The Old Bailey trial, thought to be the first of its kind in the world, heard from witnesses giving evidence via a video link from the Afghan capital of Kabul that Zardad ruthlessly exerted his control of an important supply route in the 1990s.

The 41-year-old warlord used his militiamen for four years to terrorise the civilian population in the region under his control, abducting and torturing victims during imprisonment that could last for months.

One victim told the trial that he was so badly beaten by Zardad's men during his four-month detention that when he was eventually released his family failed to recognise him.

The warlord was convicted yesterday of conspiring to take hostages and conspiracy to torture at a retrial after a jury failed to return verdicts at an original trial last year. He will be sentenced next Tuesday.

Officers from Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch conducted a lengthy investigation costing an estimated £1 million ($2.6 million) to track down victims in Afghanistan, many of whom remained too terrified of Zardad to give evidence. Those that did were driven anonymously to the British embassy in Kabul and used video screens linked to the Old Bailey court room.

Ken Macdonald, the director of public prosecutions, said: "Zardad's actions and those of his men were horrific. Through our witnesses, we were able to tell the jury of his reign of terror.

"By securing this conviction, we have shown there is no hiding place here for torturers and hostage-takers."

The warlord was a leading member of a group calling itself Hizb-i-Islam or the Islamic Party and was considered a "folk hero" after fighting both against the Russians (as a member of the mujahedeen) and the Taleban.

But the court heard that he came to control a series of checkpoints on roads leading to Pakistan in the Sarobi district some 80km outside Kabul where his men would seize travellers between 1992 and 1996, when the fundamentalist Taleban took over Afghanistan.

Victims siad they were beaten with rubber hoses and bicycle chains or stabbed with a bayonet and strung up until unconscious. Others described how they were kept in total darkness for months at a time.

James Lewis QC, prosecuting, said: "They would beat, wound and even shoot and kill civilians. They would detain and imprison them. They would hold them for ransom or exchange civilians taken at the checkpoint or elsewhere."

The jury was told that the group was assisted by a man who was kept tethered and would bite and attack travellers.

Lord Goldsmith QC, who as the Attorney General can represent the Crown in court, told the original trial: "The human dog was biting people and eating testicles under the orders of the soldiers at the checkpoint."

Although the court heard testimony about a "dog-like" long-haired man attacking a lorry driver who failed to hand over his cargo of grapes quickly enough, no evidence of castration was provided at either trial.

Lord Goldsmith said that the law allowed for Zardad to be prosecuted in Britain even though neither he nor his victims were British and his crimes were committed in Afghanistan.

He said: "We believe this to be the first time in any country, in international law and certainly English law, where offences of torture and hostage-taking have been prosecuted in circumstances such as this.

"However, there are crimes which are so heinous, such an affront to justice, that they can be tried in any country."

The investigation into Zardad, who arrived in Britain in 1998 under a false passport, was sparked when he was tracked down to his home in Bexleyheath, Kent, by BBC journalist John Simpson.

When arrested by anti-terrorist branch officers in 2002, Zardad had withdrawn his application for political asylum on the grounds his affiliation with Hizb-i-Islami made him a target for the Taleban and was feared to be preparing to leave the country.

The warlord claimed in court that he had actively banned any torture by his troops and the witnesses who gave evidence against him were politically motivated.

- INDEPENDENT