Prosecution of Czech soldiers in Afghan soldier's death halted

Info.cz

The state attorney halted the prosecution of four Czech soldiers accused of not reporting a crime in relation to the death of Afghan soldier Wahidullah Khan, the Ekonomicky denik server reported based on information from the accused soldiers' defence lawyer Radek Ondrus yesterday.

The server said the accused are two officers and two military intelligence specialists.

"The case was divided into two proceedings. The first focused on what happened in Afghanistan last year and the second on the possibility that the military command did not care about the investigation of Khan's death and the possible involvement of Czech soldiers at all," Ekonomicky denik wrote, referring to an unnamed source.

The server's information was confirmed by Ondrus. "Yes, your information is correct. For now, I do not have my client's approval to address the situation more openly," Ondrus told the server.

According to information reported by the Respekt weekly in August, all four accused were members of a committee that arrived to Afghanistan three days after Khan's death in order to investigate what happened at the military base.

Afterwards, the accused allegedly tried to hide some of the circumstances surrounding the case from their subordinates, the Defence Ministry as well as the Czech representatives in Afghanistan.

Khan shot Czech military dog handler Tomas Prochazka at the Shindand base in Herat province to death last November. He was detained and held by Western forces.

Shortly after he was returned to the Afghan forces, Khan died.

In November, the New York Times (NYT) wrote about the investigation of the Czech and U.S. troops who may have been involved in his killing. Defence Minister Lubomir Metnar (for ANO) denied the allegations at the time.

sinfin.digital