Afghan lawmakers on Thursday claimed that the government had released three dangerous inmates from prison who were convicted and sentenced to the death penalty on charges of coordinating suicide bombings.
A list of some three hundred prisoners sentenced to death has been dispatched to the President Hamid Karzai for his signature. But, reportedly, three names are missing from the list after the most recent, and controversial, tranche of releases from Bagram prison.
"I am aware that three individuals sentenced to death have been released, and had been convicted on charges of coordinated suicide bombings and explosions, with women and children being killed in these attacks," Herat MP Nahid Farid said.
Although the names of the three inmates were not provided, it is known that some 650 prisoners were set to be released from Bagram prison upon the order of a special commission assigned to reviewing criminal cases by Karzai.
The Afghan government, led by Karzai, has pushed a strategy of releasing insurgent prisoners in hopes of building goodwill with anti-government groups ahead of the NATO troop withdraw next year. Reconciliation with the Taliban has been one of Karzai's top priorities this year.
But efforts to release prisoners suspected of causing innocent deaths, and who were difficult for Afghan and foreign forces to apprehend, have sparked controversy and heavy criticisms from Afghan leaders less willing to do the Taliban any favors.
"One of the main issues is that there is no respect and balance between the trilateral bodies, and this issue is especially felt in the house," MP Farid said.
Some have said Karzai's commission is illegal as it does not have court sanction.
"There is no need to separately describe their crimes, each one of them have committed a crime, they have acted against the laws, they have committed murders with political ambitions - it's a fact that these individuals have committed murders," Supreme Court spokesman Abdullah Attayee said on Thursday.
The President's office, the office for Administrative Affairs and Council of Ministers declined to comment on the subject.