Former Afghan warlord to be tried in UK court

LONDON: A British court is to try an alleged former Afghan warlord in the first case of its kind since Britain ratified a 1988 convention allowing it to try crimes of torture committed abroad, a legal source told AFP Saturday.

Zardad Khan, now running a pizza parlour in a London suburb, will face charges of murder, kidnapping, theft and torture in the 1990s when he appears in court Monday, the source said.

Zardad Khan, a Pashtun, also known as Commander Zardad and Zardad Faryadi Sarwar, was in charge of roadblocks preventing access to the Afghan capital Kabul during the siege of the city. From 1992 to 1996 he and his men controlled the town of Sarobi on the road between Kabul and Jalalabad. afp

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