KABUL, Afghanistan -Seventeen Afghans were released yesterday from a U.S. base at the center of an investigation into the deaths of two prisoners in custody, according to the international Red Cross.
The men were freed from Bagram Air Base, north of the capital, and brought to Kabul, where Red Cross officials gave them enough money to cover their trip home. An estimated 300 prisoners remain in the base.
Several of the men said they had been picked up four months ago and interrogated repeatedly about the activities of Taliban rebels. They spoke of no mistreatment in the time before they were released without charge.
Up to 28 U.S. soldiers face possible criminal charges in connection with the deaths of two prisoners at Bagram in December 2002, the Army announced last week.
According to the army, both victims suffered blunt force injuries and ruled both deaths as homicides.
Noor Wali Khan, a 37-year-old waiting at a Kabul bus station, said he was well-fed in his time at Bagram and showed reporters a copy of the Quran presented to him on his release.
I wasn't beaten or threatened in the jail
the atmosphere was OK he said. We had two showers a week but unfortunately the water was cold. That was a bit uncomfortable for us.
Khan said six American soldiers had arrested him about four months earlier during evening prayers at a mosque in Khost province, a former al-Qaida stronghold on the Pakistani border.
He said he was brought via an airplane to Bagram where he was kept first in a cage and then in a room.
In repeated interrogations, they said 'You know Taliban
where are the Taliban?' We said we didn't know
that these were baseless accusations.
The military says it has made a string of changes to procedures at some 20 secretive military prisons across Afghanistan since the deaths at Bagram.
The top American commander there said recently that soldiers had stopped stripping prisoners for medical examinations and using dogs to scare them into cooperating.
An American general reviewed the prison network earlier this year, but his report has yet to be made public.
U.S. authorities are investigating several other alleged cases of prisoner abuse in military jails in Afghanistan.
One case pursued by the CIA has resulted in charges of assault being brought against a former agency contractor over the June 2003 death of an Afghan detainee in eastern Afghanistan.
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