Imprisonment clearly identified in new Criminal Procedure Code Kabul, January 2015. Public security prosecutor Abdul Sami Qarlug recalls one case from his past vividly: After a car accident a person sustained injuries, and subsequently a driver was imprisoned for nine months. Mr. Qarluq then took action: “We asked to release the convicted driver who had spent some additional months in prison for no reason. If we would have had the updated criminal procedure code at that time, it would have been easier to investigate the case properly from the start.” Mr. Qarluq attended a five-day training, delivered by Afghan trainers on the new Criminal Procedure Code, investigations and trial phases. This course was a true eye-opening experience for him: “The time of imprisonment was not very apparent during investigations in the past. Fortunately, the new Criminal Procedure Code clarifies all the ambiguities.” Now, the length of sentences is laid out clearly: Short-term imprisonment is three months to one year, medium is one year to five years. Long-term sentence is five to 15 years, and long-term imprisonment is 15 to 20 years. Mr. Qarluq seems optimistic about the future, especially when it comes to the transition of responsibilities from the internationals to the Afghans. He believes there are many experienced Afghan judges and prosecutors to deliver their knowledge to new recruits and graduates: “Already prosecutors share our experiences with each other. All professional tasks are conducted in close cooperation within the Supreme Court team to make sure the investigations and trials are fair. The same knowledge is shared with young prosecutors as well.” With 22 years of experience as a prosecutor and now working at the Supreme Court, Mr. Qarluq believes the recent Criminal Procedure training, organised by EUPOL was too short: “One cannot discuss 380 articles in five days. We would have needed at least twenty days to address the significant issues mentioned in the code.” This training is in line with EUPOL’s new mandate for sustainable transition: the course was delivered by two Afghan trainers from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO). They were both previously trained by EUPOL during a Train-the-Trainer (ToT) course.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 04:37:47 +0000
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