Condemned by a criminal tribunal in the The Hague for war crimes committed in Afghanistan; sentence upheld on appeal and by the Dutch Supreme court on 9 July 2008
position :
Chief interrogator under the communist regime from 1979 to 1992
Habibullah Jalalzoy was born in 1946. From 1979 until 1992, under the regime of Soviet-backed president Najibullah, he was the head of a unit charged with interrogations within the military intelligence of the KhAD (Khedamat-e Etelea'at-e Dawlati, the regime's secret police set up in 1980 to suppress its internal opponents).
Human rights groups say Afghan intelligence workers tortured more than 200’000 people during that period and that around 50’000 of them were killed.
The court summons said one person, who was not identified clearly enough according to the defence lawyers, had been beaten with sticks and had his skin ripped off with pliers. Others were subjected to electric shocks.
In 1996, Jalalzoy applied for asylum in the Netherlands but was turned down in 2000 due to his role in the KhAD and suspicions of human rights abuses. However, he since continued to live in the Netherlands.
He was arrested in late 2004 following investigations undertaken by the Netherlands National Investigation Team for War Crimes, a special team set up to investigate and prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity with a special mandate to screen asylum seekers.
