Kabul: Afghan President Hamid Karzai defended a top official convicted of graft at an anti-corruption conference on Tuesday, a move likely to infuriate his already irate Western backers who want greater accountability.
The three-day conference had been billed by diplomats as a sign that Karzai took the West`s concern over the issue seriously, seen as key to winning back popular support against a resurgent Taliban.
Kabul mayor Abdul Ahad Sayebi, a Karzai appointee, was sentenced to four years prison last week for corruption in the first case against a senior official in years, but is free on bail pending an appeal. He was seated toward the front at the conference, where Karzai pointed him out.
"One very serious caution I want to say. The mayor of Kabul has been sentenced to four years jail. I know the mayor. He is a clean person. I know him," Karzai said.
He said Sayebi had been targeted by enemies for refusing to grant them government land, and pointed to his chief justice and attorney general, demanding they look into the case.
Karzai`s standing among the countries which have deployed 110,000 troops to defend his government has plunged since he was re-elected in an August 20 vote, in which a U.N. backed probe found a third of his votes were fake.
His actions against corruption are being closely watched in the West, where leaders of NATO countries are defending an increasingly unpopular war against domestic public opinion that questions whether Karzai`s government is worth protecting.
In his speech, Karzai criticized government officials who "after one or two years work for the government, get rich and buy houses in Dubai," but also spoke strongly against abuses by law enforcement agencies pursuing corruption.
"As we fight corruption, we must be very careful, extremely careful, that the fight against corruption does not become corrupt itself," Karzai said.
"Every one of our police, every one of our soldiers, every one of our mayors, every one of our judges, every one of our governors can go to someone`s house knock on the door and drag a man out of that house and terrorize him. In my opinion, this is the main form of corruption," Karzai said.
PTI
