InfoAnda - New Afghan chief in Marjah has criminal record

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

S.Korea manufacturers less upbeat about Q4 -survey | 29 September 2010
Newly independent AOL reports profit | 4 February 2010
Veteran China graft lawyer to work for ousted Bo's wife: sources | | 10 June 2012

HP sees tech rebound | Technology | | 25 September 2009

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : New Afghan chief in Marjah has criminal record

Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Australia China India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam New Afghan chief in Marjah has criminal record By DEB RIECHMANN and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER,Associated Press Writers - Sunday, March 7 Send IM Story Print KABUL – The man chosen to be the fresh face of good Afghan governance in a town just seized from the Taliban has a violent criminal record in Germany _ a revelation NATO said Saturday would not dim support for a man "doing good work" in southern Afghanistan. Court records and news reports in Germany show that Abdul Zahir, the man appointed as the new civilian chief in Marjah, served part of a more than four-year prison sentence for stabbing his son in 1998. An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, also confirmed Zahir has a criminal record in Germany. Zahir denies he committed any crime. "I was not a killer. I was not a smuggler. ... I didn't commit any crime," Zahir told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday evening. He said allegations of a criminal record were "all a lie." Zahir's integrity is an issue because his job is to convince residents of the town in Helmand province that the Afghan government can provide them with a better life than the Taliban, which were routed during a three-week offensive by thousands of U.S., NATO and Afghan troops. Marjah is the first major test of NATO's counterinsurgency strategy since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 new American troops to try to reverse the Taliban's momentum. Adm. Gregory Smith, director of communications for NATO, said the international alliance strongly supports Helmand Gov. Gulab Mangal, who picked Zahir for the job. "Zahir, from our reporting, is doing good work down there," Smith said Saturday, adding that NATO is not pushing Afghan officials to oust him. Zahir said he lived in Germany for 15 years before returning to Afghanistan in 2000. During his time in Germany, he said he worked in a hotel and at a laundry service. Zahir, a leading member of the Alizai tribe, has lived with his family for the past four years in Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah, residents of the city said. He worked there with Jilani Popal, head of the Afghan Independent Directorate of Local Government, an agency seeking to boost the effectiveness and capacity of local governments. He said he took the job as civilian chief in Marjah because "I love my country and my country needed me. My relatives, my tribe were here." Zahir said his adversaries in Afghanistan were trying to tarnish his reputation. "This news is coming from those people who are against me," he said. "They are against my relations with the foreigners. They want to sabotage me. They don't want such a person to serve the people, who has good relations with Americans, British, and foreigners." In an interview last week, Mangal, the governor of Helmand, said he wasn't aware of anything illegal in Zahir's background. "He is not being appointed forever, but he will be here for some time," he said. Mangal said that a request was made of Interpol to check whether the new Marjah district governor had any outstanding warrants or was being sought. He said Interpol said he was not on any watch list or wanted for any crime. Zahir has been tasked with bringing good governance to Marjah and ensuring that the new police in the area are symbolic of a new breed of Afghan policeman that is honest and committed to bringing security to the country. "In Marjah we have a new strategy," Mangal said. "If we don't bring security and development and if we don't solve their problems, then they will think the Taliban is better than us." If Zahir isn't up to the task, Mangal said, "We will dismiss him. If he doesn't have the ability, if he doesn't bring law and order and security, then we will dismiss him." In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omar said he wasn't familiar with Zahir but that Marjah's residents will support the government if it brings security and an administration free of corruption. Omar warned that poor governance could drive residents back to the Taliban. Court and news accounts from the late 1990s provide details of Zahir's past. Annette von Schmiedeberg, a spokeswoman for the Offenbach branch of the prosecutor's office in Darmstadt in central Germany, said Friday that an Afghan citizen with the name Abdul Z. was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for attempted manslaughter by the county court in Darmstadt on Nov. 2, 1998. Von Schmiedeberg said that in accordance with German privacy laws she could not give the full name or details about the crime. A person familiar with Zahir and the 1998 court sentencing in Germany identified him Friday for the AP after viewing a pair of photographs of him taken last month. He asked that his name not be published because he feared for his life. The newspaper Darmstaedter Echo provided three archived articles to the AP that confirmed a court hearing and sentencing of an Afghan citizen at the county court in Darmstadt on the same date, Nov. 2, 1998. In an article from Nov. 3, 1998, it said the defendant from Afghanistan was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison because "he attempted to stab his 18-year-old son to death with a kitchen knife in the kitchen of his stepdaughter in Nieder-Roden on Dec. 15, 1997, around 4:45 p.m." Nieder-Roden is part of the small town of Rodgau in the central German state of Hesse. The newspaper said the defendant, who was 47 years old at the time of the sentencing, confessed to the allegations. He was described as a father of 13 children and husband of two wives. "The court's chamber assesses that the attack, in which the young man received life-threatening injuries to his liver, was a deliberate attempt of manslaughter and it is therefore sentencing the accused to four years and nine months," the Darmstaedter Echo said. According to the newspaper's account, the accused said he had been persecuted by the Taliban in Afghanistan and moved with his family to Rodgau in 1989. The court said the man could not cope with the fact that three of his stepchildren, among them two twin sons, turned away from him and moved into their own apartment in the fall of 1996, it reported. In August 1997, he lured them back to Afghanistan saying he wanted them to attend a wedding there, the newspaper said. But once they arrived in Afghanistan, he took away their passports and plane tickets and abandoned them, it said. In early December, the sons returned to Germany with financial help from somebody else, the newspaper said. Back in Rodgau, the convicted man told other Afghans that his children had been kidnapped by an "archenemy in Afghanistan," the newspaper said. However, when one of his wives told him on Dec. 15 that his sons had returned to Germany, he beat her, it said. One of his sons consequently confronted him about the beating, and he reacted by stabbing his son with an eight-inch (21-centimeter) kitchen knife, it said. After the incident, the accused fled via the Netherlands and the Czech Republic to the German-Polish border where he was arrested on Jan. 7, 1998, near the German town of Goerlitz, it said. In an earlier article about the ongoing court trial in Darmstadt, the Darmstaedter Echo reported on Oct. 15, 1998, that the accused was a driver for the defense minister in his homeland and also worked as a salesman. ___ Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Associated Press writers Kathy Gannon and Amir Shah in Kabul contributed to this report. Recommend Send IM Story Print Related Articles China's gang-busting city boss gets a national audience AFP - 2 hours 48 minutes ago Chinese president urges stability in Tibet AFP - 2 hours 53 minutes ago Afghan: Marjah chief's crime record will be probed AP - Sunday, March 7 New Afghan chief in Marjah has criminal record AP - Sunday, March 7 North Korea airs rare video of leader at rally AP - Sunday, March 7 News Search Top Stories Greek civil servants occupy building Australia police search anti-whaler ship at Japan request US jobless rate holds at 9.7 percent despite storms New food 'surge' for Haiti: WFP Violence in Greece as parliament approves tough cuts More Top Stories » ADVERTISEMENT Most Popular Most Viewed Most Recommended Experts confirm asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs Sony to take on Apple with handheld devices: WSJ Australia police search anti-whaler ship at Japan request Scientists find early dinosaur cousin New food 'surge' for Haiti: WFP More Most Viewed » Chile quake moved Earth's axis, shortened days: scientist Florida killer whale to stay in park after deadly attack Experts confirm asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs DNA reveals some mystery on King Tut, raises questions Scientists recreate Big Bang heat of 4 tln degrees C More Most Recommended » Elsewhere on Yahoo! Financial news on Yahoo! Finance Stars and latest movies Best travel destinations More on Yahoo! News Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Subscribe to our news feeds Top StoriesMy Yahoo!RSS » More news feeds | What are news feeds? Also on Yahoo Answers Groups Mail Messenger Mobile Travel Finance Movies Sports Games » All Yahoo! Services Site Highlights Singapore Full Coverage Most Popular Asia Entertainment Photos Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). All Rights Reserved. Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Community | Intellectual Property Rights Policy | Help

Other News on Sunday, 7 March 2010
CORRECTED
EU foreign ministers in show of support for Ashton
BlackBerry checks if Saudi wants to control messages
Greek civil servants occupy building
Sade Beats Out Lady Antebellum, Johnny Cash For Third Week At #1 On Billboard Albums Chart
US agencies needs clear cybersecurity roles: GAO report
Marie Osmond's Son Took His Own Life, Police Say
Russia says Islamist rebel leader killed |
Dr. Conrad Murray Could Have Covered Up Evidence In Michael Jackson's Death
Iran's Ahmadinejad calls Sept 11 "big fabrication"
Marie Osmond's Son Commits Suicide
Gary Coleman Hospitalized After Suffering Seizures On Set Of "The Insider"
Turkish PM says U.S. vote to "greatly harm" ties
Taliban fight in Afghan south led by ex-Gitmo inmate |
Italy opposition protests at ballot decree |
Two peacekeepers missing after Darfur ambush |
Woman Feeds Bear In Zoo, Loses Fingers
Afghan: Marjah chief's crime record will be probed
Murder-Suicide Bodies Found Inside Burned Home
New Afghan chief in Marjah has criminal record
Obama Shows Resolve To Get Health Care Reform Done
North Korea airs rare video of leader at rally
China: No direct contact with Google on dispute
Reports: SKorean Internet addicts let baby starve
Sri Lanka leader rejects UN panel on rights abuses
Leading Pakistani Taliban deputy believed killed
Top Pakistani Taliban leader may be dead
India's Essar to buy US coal company
Alice in Wonderland opens strongly at box office |
Jordan pins hopes on 'Hurt Locker' sweeping Oscars
NKorea defector tells of business deals in West
Stevie Wonder receives top French award
Iraq Elections LIVE REPORT
Under threat, Iraqis vote in crucial election |
Anger as FIFA rejects goal-line technology
Gunmen raid Berlin poker tournament: police
Ex-intelligence officer wins USA Memory Championship
Sarkozy announces loans for crisis-hit French farmers
Mortars rock Baghdad as election begins
Russian forces kill eight, find train attack clues
US-TECH Summary
Polls open for Iraq's parliamentary election
Mortar shells fired at polling stations in Iraq |
Iraqis vote in crunch test for fledgling democracy
Some Chile quake areas awaiting aid a week later |
China to punish hackers, says no Google complaint
British PM hails anti-Taliban push in southern Afghanistan
Venezuela, Spain boost anti-terror ties after row
US envoy seeks Mideast talks deal, tension rises
Videogame makers racing to develop iPad games
U.S. envoy seeks Mideast talks deal, tension rises |
Kosovo PM rejects talks on status
Togo leader Gnassingbe re-elected in disputed poll |
AIDS rise may force India to spend more: World Bank |
US billions for Iran sanction-busting firms
Paramedics hail 'hero' boy from Arizona bus crash
Chinese experts stress need for basic health care
Mini-cyclone, record floods hit Australia
Panasonic, Best Buy to tie up on 3D TV sales |
Australia police follow up India toddler's death
China to punish hackers, says no Google complaint |
Good times return for India's IT workers
Rural Australian towns flooded by rising rivers
Sadr urges Iraqis to vote to help end U.S. occupation |
Japan to arrest anti-whaling activist: report
China says Iran sanctions no cure |
No signs of life from 31 trapped in Chinese mine
Malaysia opposition fires lawmaker in 'Allah' spat
Death toll from China snow storms rises to 30
China's gang-busting city boss gets a national audience
Mitsubishi, Peugeot capital tie-up may happen
Sandra Bullock delights at Razzie awards
S.Korea firms to raise capex 17 pct in 2010-survey
China faces new pressure to let currency rise
China says no request yet from Google for talks
Burden of AIDS hits Zimbabwe's women hardest
Sandra Bullock delights at Razzie awards
Alice in Wonderland opens strongly at box office |
Sex scandals: a bad week for India's 'godmen'
Oscar hopeful Sandra Bullock crowned worst actress |
Redbone singer Lolly Vegas dies in Los Angeles
Redbone singer Lolly Vegas dies in Los Angeles |
Nicaragua's poor scavenge 1972 earthquake wreckage
'Alice in Wonderland' enchants North American box office
Thousands march in Cape Town for gay rights in Africa
Swiss museum puts Polaroids 'in peril' on show
"Alice in Wonderland" opens strongly at box office
Iran's Ahmadinejad to visit Afghanistan on Monday
North Korea warns U.S. and South of nuclear build-up |
Eight Teens Shot Outside Indiana Roller Rink
Karzai visits Afghan battle zone |
Cablevision, Disney Fee Spat Darkens ABC Hours Before Oscars
Dozens reported dead in Afghan infighting: police
Egypt's Mubarak in 'stable condition': state TV
Japan PM support down to 36 percent amid base woes: poll |
Pakistan police very near to UK boy's abductors |
Clashes kill more than 100 in central Nigeria |
Togo opposition says to contest Gnassingbe win |
Thai ship free after ransom: Somali pirates |
China says only socialism can save Tibet |
12 killed in Philippine bus accident
Taiwan experts probe suspected fault after quake
Gunmen kill Pakistani Taliban leader in northwest
Sri Lankan opposition leader on hunger strike
N.Korea slams US war games, pledges nuclear defence
Man charged in death of Indian boy in Australia
Indian women may hold a third of legislature seats
NKorea threatens force ahead of US-SKorea drills
China says only socialism can "save" Tibet
Hollywood on edge as Oscars countdown begins
Maoist rebels threaten to attack Indian cities
China defends growing links with Africa
Malaysia Airlines boosted after sweeping reforms
Italy Corruption Probe Exposes Liaisons Of Vatican Escort With Men
Japan finance minister: stimulus plan to continue
Hollywood on edge as Oscars countdown begins
Swiss vote a resounding 'no' to lawyers for animals
Chips are down for US casinos as revenues slide
Director rejects Israel link before Oscars |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01