The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) on Tuesday urged the authorities to release the two activists “as soon as possible” and “ensure their safety and security.”
The group tweeted:
“Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned about the illegal detention of civil society activists Mr. Musa Mahmudi and Ehsanullah Hamidi, who were investigating the cases of alleged child sexual abuse in Logar province.”
The watchdog group called out the National Directorate of Security (which has neither confirmed nor denied holding the two activists) in a tweet:
“AIHRC considers the detention of the activists by the NDS in clear contradiction of national laws and human rights standards and calls on the authorities concerned to release the two activists as soon as possible, and ensure their safety and security,” it added.
On Monday, Amnesty International in a statement also called on the NDS to “immediately release” two civil society members “detained after they exposed alleged sexual abuse against children.”
The statement said that both civil society members were “arbitrarily detained” by the “National Directorate of Security (NDS)” on November 21 when they were “on their way to meet with the European Union ambassador in Kabul.”
A mid-November article in the UK’s Guardian, which was based on findings of Mahmudi and Hamidi, alleged that “over 500” children and youth in “six schools” in Logar province had been sexually abused by a network of people, many of whom were in positions of authority.
According to the Amnesty report, the two civil society members began receiving threats on Facebook—some from officials in Logar– after they gave interviews to the UK’s Guardian and Afghanistan’s TOLOnews about the existence of a “paedophile ring.”
According to the Guardian, Mahmudi and Hamidi uncovered more than 100 videos of alleged abuse, and some of the victims shown on the videos were subsequently murdered, presumably for “dishonoring” their families.
