Afghanistan's Attorney General's Office will seek harsher penalties for those found guilty of aiding Kabul Bank's collapse, saying that the verdict of the special tribunal on the crisis was too soft.
Last week, the special court for Kabul Bank crisis sentenced 21 persons to imprisonment of up to five years and fines.
"Following our talks with responsible attorneys who have worked here, we concluded that the verdict issued by the special court for Kabul Bank is not in accordance with the law as described by attorney's side, our description of the crime, and the previously demanded punishments," said Sayed Alam Ishaqzai, head of the Attorney General's Afghan Anti-Corruption Prosecution.
"Therefore we will ask for an appeal and we will provide it to the responsible source of the Supreme Court," he added.
On the other hand, the head of the special court Shamsurrahman Shams has said that five years of imprisonment – the sentence handed down to former Kabul Bank chairman Shir Khan Farnood and CEO Khalilullah Firoozi – is the highest level of imprisonment according to the country's penal code.
"Besides penalising them, we fined them... the interest of the money too," Shams said.
"The punishment we handed them is for barratry, for which the highest punishment is five years. There is a medium imprisonment (for it) that is one to five years and we issued them five years. The judges do not have competency to verdict a punishment higher than what the law has set," he said.
"The court's verdict is the final verdict and no other source can change it, not even the president," he added.
However, the Attorney General said that in accordance with its framework and qualifications, it has the right to call for an appeal, and it expects more serious verdicts from the next courts.