They helped America prosecute the Taliban. Now their lives are in danger, Baton Rouge DA says

Two years after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, thousands of U.S.-trained prosecutors, judges, lawyers and investigators still in the country fear for their lives.

The Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA), U.S. senators, and lawmakers — including East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore — have been working to bring them to safety.

“As Americans we made that promise that we’d never leave anyone behind, and we’ve left thousands behind,” Moore said at a news conference Tuesday morning highlighting issues facing prosecutors in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

Moore recently returned from a trip to Turkey on behalf of Prosecutors for Prosecutors, an effort launched by APA. There, he met with former prime ministers of Afghanistan and prosecutors who have made it to safety.

During the 20-year war in Afghanistan, the U.S. government funded and trained thousands of prosecutors, who prosecuted more than 60,000 people, according to APA, including thousands of Taliban and Islamic State members, as well as others for human rights abuses and crimes against women. When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, most of those prisoners were freed. Some are now in positions of power.

The Taliban fired all prosecutors when it took control of Afghanistan, according to a United Nations report.

“A subset of prosecutors — especially those who investigated and prosecuted members of the Taliban — face extremely grave risks as a result of their previous work, and many reportedly remain in hiding,” the report reads. “Criminal offenders who were released by the Taliban have also sought to carry out reprisals against prosecutors and judges. This includes women officials who face threats because they were involved in the prosecution and sentencing of perpetrators of violence against women, as well as terrorism cases.”

Thousands of justice sector employees fled to Pakistan and Iraq after the U.S. withdrawal, where they are not completely safe. A smaller number made it to safety in Turkey, the U.S., or Europe. Many could not leave Afghanistan.

The Taliban has killed at least 35 prosecutors since 2021, according to Prosecutors for Prosecutors.

“We were in dire need of human beings, trained by the U.S., with U.S. money, to uphold the rule of law in Afghanistan, which they did,” Moore said. “We need these few thousand people to be recognized as at risk. It’s been two years; they can’t survive much longer.”

Time is running out

What tenuous safety prosecutors had in Pakistan is severely at risk. Since September of this year, Pakistani authorities have forced out more than 375,000 Afghans to Afghanistan, according to Human Rights Watch. The International Rescue Committee says about 1.7 million Afghans are facing deportation from Pakistan.

Among those being deported or coerced to leave are “women and girls, human rights defenders, journalists, and former government employees,” Human Rights Watch said in a report.

Kevin Rardin, currently an APA Prosecutor fellow, worked as a legal adviser to the U.S. forces in Afghanistan and served as a mentor to lawyers in the Afghan army.

“Afghan prosecutors were an essential part of the counterinsurgency. Those prisoners are now out, in power, and out to take revenge,” he said. “The situation is very dire. They face twin specters of hunger and terror. They’re living house-to-house in the mountains.”

While some Afghans who worked with the U.S. government, such as interpreters, are eligible for Special Immigrant Visas, those in the justice sector are not. That’s because they were not technically U.S. employees, but Afghan government employees funded by the U.S.

Similarly, they are not eligible for Priority 1 or 2 visas. These visas go to Afghans who worked with the U.S. government, for a U.S. government-funded program, or for a U.S.-based media organization or nongovernmental organization.

Prosecutors for Prosecutors is working with Louisiana Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, as well as Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar to expand the Afghan Adjustment Act. The bill was originally sponsored by Klobuchar to establish a pathway to admit Afghans into the U.S. with temporary humanitarian status, and the senators want to expand it to include justice sector employees.

Prosecutors for Prosecutors has a list of 3,850 former justice sector employees in hiding in Afghanistan and in need of assistance.

“About 600 of them would be ready to go tomorrow if we could get the U.S. government to move and we had the money,” said David Laban, president of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

It costs about $10,000 per person in relocation costs. All donations go directly toward helping prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers and investigators, Laban said. The association does not take any profits.

Yama Rayeen, co-founder at International Organization for Transitional Justice and Peace and a former Afghan prosecutor, said his former colleagues hold valuable knowledge about Afghanistan and the justice sector, and many speak multiple foreign languages.

“They would be an asset to the U.S.,” he said.

Pleas for help

Moore said he and others working on this issue receive letters from prosecutors every day. The prosecutors send them at great risks to their lives, he said.

“I worked in some parts of the Attorney General’s office as prosecutor. In these departments I worked to prosecute powerful people, terrorists, drug smugglers, dangerous kidnappers. I was threatened and my life was injured several times. I was attacked while performing my duty. My house was searched several times by the Taliban. And in the society where I live, I am insulted and humiliated because I was a prosecutor. My life is in danger, please help me, I am a single woman,” reads one letter.

Another, from a prosecutor who worked in three different provinces of Afghanistan, said he was attacked three times by the Taliban and Islamic State.

“I did my duty to defend democracy and human rights. During my duty, I imprisoned Taliban, ISIS, drug dealers, human rights violators,” he wrote. “My children are under [redacted] years old. They have hunger, cold weather, and a lack of winter clothes. Pakistani police forcibly deport a large number of Afghans every day. I can’t live in Afghanistan for fear of the life and future of my wife and children.”

On Tuesday, members of Prosecutors for Prosecutors said the main priorities are working to get countries to host Afghans, to amend the Afghan Adjustment Act, to raise awareness, and to raise funds. Baton Rouge residents can visit apa-pfp.org to donate.