{"id":9241,"date":"2023-09-08T17:22:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T17:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/?p=9241"},"modified":"2023-09-08T17:30:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T17:30:44","slug":"statement-ondire-state-of-afghan-prosecutors-two-years-after-fall-of-kabul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/?p=9241","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Prosecutors Issue Statement on Dire State of Afghan Prosecutors Two Years After Fall of Kabul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington, DC\u2013 On the second-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul and the end of the Kabul
\nairlift known as Operation Allies Refuge, the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys issued the
\nfollowing statement urging Congress to include justice sector personnel in the Afghan
\nAdjustment Act:
\n\u201cWe represent prosecutors working in every state across the nation, at the city, county and state
\nlevel, who have dedicated their lives to the rule of law and public safety. In courtrooms, each of
\nus has been face to face with the most violent criminals who threatened the safety of our
\ncommunities and offended the rule of law. Yet we have never faced the threats our fellow Afghan
\nprosecutors are facing today.
\nAt the request, and through the support of the United States and allied countries, Afghans
\nestablished the rule of law and enforced it against the Taliban who sought to evade justice. Now,
\nthose who were prosecuted have been released from prison to govern and pursue deadly
\nvengeance against these ministers of justice and their families.
\nThere is no amnesty for Afghan prosecutors. More than 40 assassination attempts have been
\ndocumented. More than 30 prosecutors have been killed (along with their family members) in
\nthe last two years. <\/span>More prosecutors have been killed in Afghanistan over the past two years than
\nhave been killed in the United States over the last 100 years<\/span>. <\/span>In just two weeks, APA has received
\nmore than 200 emails from Afghan prosecutors pleading for their lives.
\nFor twenty years the United States trained, funded, and worked daily with these Afghan
\nprosecutors to build a democracy and enforce the rule of law. They were fully integrated into
\nthe courts created with the U.S. and our allies to enforce laws against terrorism, illegal narcotics,
\nand violence against women. The current de facto Taliban government has dismantled those
\ncourts, fired all prosecutors, and ordered the round-up of prosecutors in hiding for further
\n\u2018processing\u2019.<\/span>
\nThe U.S. military has done honorable work in proposing legislative language in the 2023 Afghan
\nAdjustment Act that seeks to expand Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) protection to those who
\nsupported them and are now in grave danger. We support their efforts and endorse their
\napproach with the friendly amendment that SIV protection is extended to <\/span>all <\/span>justice sector
\npersonnel\u2013including judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and investigators; all those who did
\ntheir duty facing the Taliban and other terrorists in courtrooms.
\n<\/span>We urge Congress to act now to rescue our allies and support the amendment and passage of
\nthe Afghan Adjustment Act.\u201d
\n<\/span>###
\n<\/span>About APA\u2019s Prosecutors for Prosecutors (PFP) Campaign
\n<\/span>The U.S. Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA-US) launched the <\/span>Prosecutors for Prosecutors
\n<\/span>(PFP) campaign in response to a dire request from the Afghanistan Prosecutors Association (APAAF) to help save the lives of prosecutors who remain in Afghanistan. PFP is a 501c3 nonprofit and
\nnongovernmental organization. Our goal is to raise $15 million dollars to get 1,500 Afghan
\nprosecutors and their families relocated to a safe country. Every dollar donated to PFP will go to
\nnon-governmental organizations (NGOs) to fund the safe relocation of Afghan prosecutors.
\n<\/span>About the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys
\n<\/span>The Association of Prosecuting Attorneys is a bi-partisan professional organization representing
\nprosecutors working to improve their profession and the nation\u2019s criminal justice system. We
\nhave a long history of improving transparency, accountability, and equity in our criminal justice
\nsystem. We have provided support to rule of law programs during the past 20 years, including
\nproviding advice to improve the effectiveness of our sister organization, the Afghanistan
\nProsecutors Association.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, DC\u2013 On the second-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul and the end of the Kabul airlift known as Operation Allies Refuge, the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys issued the following statement urging Congress to include justice sector personnel in the Afghan Adjustment Act: \u201cWe represent prosecutors working in every state across the nation, at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-statement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9246,"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241\/revisions\/9246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ago-af.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}