The Afghan government has moved to release 80 percent of the high-security detainees who were handed over this year by the U.S. military and evaluated by an Afghan review panel, according to a Defense Department report released Friday.
Many of the recommendations for release have been opposed by the U.S. military on the grounds that the detainees, some of whom were apprehended in dangerous raids of insurgent redoubts, pose an ongoing risk to Afghan security forces and government officials. U.S. officials had hoped the Afghan review board would endorse continued incarceration, but it has decided instead to free most of the detainees whose cases it has examined on the grounds that insufficient evidence was collected to prosecute them in court.
The U.S. military task force handling detention matters "disagrees with some of the ARB's decisions," the department wrote, using an acronym for the board, but the U.S. government has continued to support the board "as part of the transition of Afghan sovereignty."