Afghans free American accused of torture

AN American jailed for two years in Afghanistan on charges of torturing alleged terrorists in a makeshift jail was freed two months early on yesterday under a government decree.

Edward Caraballo, 44, from New York, waved to reporters at Kabul’s international airport as he arrived in the back of a four-wheel drive vehicle accompanied by heavily armed American security personnel.

A US Embassy official said an American consular officer accompanied Caraballo to the airport from the Pol-i-Charki prison, where he had been held since July 2004. He later caught a flight to Dubai on his way back to the United States.

“I feel jubilant and happy. I am still worried that something could happen to me as I leave but I am optimistic that I will get home safely,” Mr Caraballo said in a telephone interview before his release.

He said he was freed two months early under a decree issued by the Afghan government for prisoners with less than 12 months left on their sentences.

The US Embassy declined to comment.

Caraballo and two other Americans, former soldier Jonathan “Jack” Idema and accomplice Brent Bennett, were arrested in July 2004 and convicted of running a private prison in Kabul as part of a freelance hunt for terrorists.

The Americans were arrested after Afghan security forces raided a house and discovered eight Afghan men who said they had been abused.

Afghan authorities were outraged by the jail’s discovery, while claims that Idema received official American backing for his operation embarrassed Washington.