America closes notorious Bagram prison
Source: Reuters
America closes notorious Bagram prison
December 12, 2014
KABUL: The United States said on Thursday it had shut its last detention facility in Afghanistan and no longer had custody of detainees there, closing a much-criticised chapter in Washington’s fight against extremism.
The US Defence Department said it had recently transferred the last detainees from Bagram Airfield north of the capital, Kabul. It closed the prison there on Wednesday, a day after a Senate report detailed abuse at a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan.
The US embassy in Kabul said the closure decision was linked to a deadline to end the detention programme in Afghanistan this year, not to the Senate report.
“The Government of Afghanistan will be responsible for all detention facilities from Jan.1,” an embassy spokesman said.
Foreign prisoners at the various sites in Bagram, often compared to Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay jail, were given no trials, facing only review boards staffed by US military officers. At its peak, the Bagram prison held hundreds of detainees.
A US court found two adult detainees had been beaten to death at Bagram in 2002. The US government said such cases of abuse were rare.
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