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Farnood Lawyer Slams Kabul Bank Tribunal

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The lawyer for former Kabul Bank chairman Shir Khan Farnood claimed on Sunday that the investigation into the collapse of the bank by a special tribunal has not been done fairly.

Just days away from the tribunal releasing its findings, Farnood's lawyer Sabghatullah Tamim said that the available documents show that Mahmoud Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai, and Mohammad Hassin Fahim, the brother of Vice President Marshal Mohammad Kasim Fahim, have not repaid their loans from the defunct bank and they have abused their power and influence in the government.

Farnood was investigated by the court along with former Kabul Bank chief executive Khalil Ferozi for their role in the bank's collapse, but Tamim said the court ignored both Karzai and Fahim for fear of their connections in the government.

"Previously, they had accounted for Hassin Fahim's $121 million loan for the Gas Group – they [Fahim's company] admitted it. They marked their fingerprints and admitted at the Receivership Department that they would pay the loan back, I mean both Khalil Ferozi and Hassin Fahim. But they referred it to the commission of financial lawsuits, which reviewed the matter, and they took the conclusion from the commission. This is against the banking law of Article 84 that says 'No case is revisable'," Tamim said.

"They even made a joke about it and described it like a metaphor – that they had acted like Prophet Mohammad's companions doing a work [accepting money] as an oblation," Tamim added.

However both shareholders Mahmoud Karzai and Hassin Fahim deny they have paid any outstanding loans from Kabul Bank.

"I have paid all my loans and I do not owe even one cent to Gas Group and now Mr Ferozi has got all the responsibilities of Gas Group," Fahim said Sunday in a telephone interview with TOLOnews.

Mahmoud told TOLOnews last week that any reports of him owing money were false. He made the statement after the special tribunal chief Shams Rahman Shams stated that he and Fahim still owed money to the bank.

Tamim also claimed on Sunday that the special tribunal had failed to investigate counterfeiting overseen by Mahmoud Karzai.

"Mahmoud Karzi himself made more than 10 forged trading licenses – it still exists in the files – and he received loans on the basis of that. So then, why is he not now investigated by the judicial bodies? " Tamim asked.

Mahmoud Karzai retaliated, telling TOLOnews Sunday in a telephone interview that Farnood is the most guilty party, referring to the $400 million he allegedly stashed in offshore accounts.

"Here [Afghanistan] is a good place for thieves because you do whatever you want, then talk freely and without responsibility. First [Farnood] should bring that $400 million and give it back to the Afghan nation, then wash out his mouth, and then he should talk," Mahmood Karzai said.

The special tribunal on Kabul Bank is expected to deliver its verdict this week on its investigation into at least 22 people said to be involved in the bank's collapse in 2010.


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