Taliban supreme leader issues decree extending suspect detention

KABUL: The supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, has issued a new decree under which the period of detention of suspects has been extended.

The decree prohibits the release of any detained person without a court order.

According to Afghan media, under the new decree, any suspect can be detained for a maximum of 10 days, while previously this period was 72 hours.

Afghan media reported that the decree clearly states that ‘no detained person can be released without a court order’.

Previously, the police had the authority to release a suspect if there was insufficient evidence to send a case to the prosecutor, and the prosecutor also had the authority to release detainees within 15 days.

According to Afghan media, this procedure was enshrined in Article 88 of the former Afghan government’s penal code, which required the prosecutor to order the immediate release of a suspect if detention was not deemed necessary under the law.

However, according to information published on the website of the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Justice, the previous penal code has now been completely abolished.