António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, said in his latest report on Afghanistan that, according to Taliban prison administration statistics, the number of prisoners in the group’s prisons reached 30,300 as of July 20.
The report, published on Wednesday, September 16 (25 Sunbula), states that the Taliban prison administration announced on May 26 that the group’s Supreme Court had pardoned and released 1,191 prisoners on the occasion of Eid al-Adha.
The UN also reported that the Taliban prison administration has requested support for prisoners in areas of nutrition, health services, and education.
Alongside official prisoner statistics, UN human rights bodies have documented cases of arbitrary and prolonged detention by Taliban authorities over the past years.
UNAMA has reported that, in some cases, individuals have remained in detention for long periods without effective access to a lawyer, family, or a judicial authority to review the legality of their detention.
The agency has also documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of detainees.
