Abuse 'systemic' in Afghan jails

Prisoners in US custody in Afghanistan suffer “systemic” mistreatment, Human Rights Watch said today, calling for a network of secretive jails dogged by allegations of assault and sexual abuse to be opened to outside scrutiny.

“The United States has shown that it can’t police its own prisons,” John Sifton, New York-based Human Rights Watch’s Afghanistan expert, said in a statement.