An open letter to the President of Afghanistan!
As you are aware of the arrest warrant of well known poet, writer and analyst Mr. PartawNadiri, which has been recently issued by Attorney General Office.
Seemingly this warrant has been prepared based on a grievance of Mr. Dawood Ali Najafi, Minister of Transport and Aviation to the Attorney General Office of Afghanistan.
The basis of Mr. Najafi’s grievance is an article, written by Mr. Nadiri and published by ArmanMili daily News Paper, which contains a quotation of Mr. Najafi, released by Afghan media several months before. Mr. Najafi has said: “I made Hamed Karzai President; otherwise, Dr. Abdullah was the winner.” This quotation has been strictly criticized as well.
This quotation was leaked through a document of the High Office of Supervision on Implementation of Strategy of Campaign Against Corruption, published by media, and which has name and sign of Mr. AsadullahWafa.
According to the document, two employees of Ministry of Transport have complained against Mr. Najafi to the Presidential Complaint’s Bureau, and alongside charging Mr. Najafi by murder, embezzlement and misuse of governmental officials, they have mentioned that in a private party Mr. Najafi has said: “I made Hamed Karzai President, otherwise, Dr. Abdullah was the winner.”
Now the Attorney General of the country, without asking from the complainers of Mr. Najafi or Mr. Asadullah’s questioning or conducting inquiry about the media, has tried to arrest Mr. Nadiri, who has only written an analytical article about the issue.
Through this mail, we have three requests from you:
- Initially, the Attorney General Office should be assigned to investigate the complaints against Mr. Najafi and punish the guilty persons, whether it’s Mr. Najafi or the complainers. At the same time Mr. Wafa should be questioned for his indifference during his job and leak of documents.
- Secondly, according to the media law all the grievances against media outlets should be investigated by the “Mass Media Commission”, and if there is any criminal aspect, then, the case should be handed over to the judicial bodies of the country.
As a matter of fact the Minister of Information and culture has refused to establish the “Mass Media Commission” yet. Because according to the law, all the members of this commission would be Journalists and civil society activists. Instead of that he has maintained a commission which was established according to the previous law, and now it has no legal basis.
We believe that one of the causes of the controversial media cases such as the case of Mr. Nadiri is the lake of presence of a legal Mass Media Commission which is expected to be established in current laws. If such a commission is established and the Minister of Information and Culture does not intervene into its activities, and the journalists could elect their own representatives to this commission, For sure such media cases would not become too controversial. Meanwhile the cases which do not have any criminal aspects would not be referred to the judicial bodies while criminal case would definitely handed over to the judicial bodies and nobody would misused it.
-Thirdly, the Attorney General Office be strictly ordered to cancel the arrest warrant of Mr. Nadiri and restore his good reputation by any means possible.
While we respect and appreciate the attitude of President toward the criticism of media during last eleventh years, we expect him to accept our requests and answer them by practical means. At the same time we expect him to question the Minister of Information and Culture because of his illegal activities and his refusal of establishing the mentioned media commission according to the laws.
Afghanistan Journalist's Federation
