President Ashraf Ghani has assigned a delegation to investigate the arrest of a member of the Balkh Provincial Council.
Ghani Orders Team To Probe Mohmand's Arrest
Afghan Voice Agency(AVA) , 16 Aug 2017 - 10:46
President Ashraf Ghani has assigned a delegation to investigate the arrest of a member of the Balkh Provincial Council.
AVA- A delegation has been assigned to investigate the arrest of Asif Mohmand, a member of the Balkh Provincial Council, who has been accused of corruption, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, Jamshid Rasouli said.
According to him, President Ashraf Ghani issued the order.
Rasouli said however that the AGO had not issued an arrest warrant for Mohmand.
Mohmand was arrested by security forces at Mazar airport after his supporters allegedly clashed with security forces on Monday night resulting in the death of two people, local officials said on Tuesday.
In addition, three other supporters of Mohmand were wounded in the clash.
Mohmand has been accused of being involved in corruption relating to a number of projects in the province, officials said.
Farhad Munir, a spokesman for the provincial governor said on Tuesday: “Asif Mohmand was arrested by police on the orders of the attorney general and he is under investigation.”
The incident unfolded on Monday when Mohmand landed at Mazar-e-Sharif airport. Police were at the airport to arrest him but according to officials Mohmand's supporters kept police away from him for ten hours.
However, the Provincial Police Chief Kamal Sadat said: "I am not aware of any warrant for Asif Mohmand's arrest and he was arrested on (Provincial Governor Atta) Noor's orders."
Last week, Mohmand held a press conference where he claimed that the “Governor of Balkh was planning to assassinate him” because he had criticized Noor. He said the “governor of Balkh threatened him with death.”
The claim was rejected by Noor’s spokesman who said “the claims are false and we are asking the judicial institutions to investigate such claims.”
The spokesman also said that Mohmand was arrested by the security forces and he is now in National Directorate of Security (NDS) custody and investigations are underway.
He said that there are certain charges against Mohmand which include involvement in corruption in some contracts, and forgery of signatures on documents.
“The arrest warrant of Mr. Mohmand was referred to the Balkh police headquarters two or three months ago by the NDS attorney and anti-corruption criminal justice center and there are certain charges against him such as forgery of signature of the deputy of the administrative office of the president and contracts," said Farhad.
At the time Mohmand said he was not able to travel to Balkh and appealed to government to investigate the issues.
Mohmand has been in Kabul for the past three months and on Monday decided to visit his province.
Story Code: 148316