Dutch court convicts Afghan man of involvement in war crimes

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court has imposed a 12-year prison sentence on a 76-year-old Afghan man convicted of involvement in war crimes in a Kabul prison in the 1980s. The man had told a court in The Hague his prosecution was a case of mistaken identity. Dutch war crimes prosecutors are convinced they have the right man after interviewing about 25 witnesses around the world. They also tapped the phones of the suspect and his family before arresting him at his home in the southern Dutch city of Kerkrade in 2019. A court statement said that between 1983 and 1987 the man worked in a prison where many opponents of the regime in Kabul were held under “appalling” conditions.