Afghanistan: First-Hand Accounts Expose Torture by Taliban Intelligence Services
The World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), together with the Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) and Human Rights Defenders Plus (HRD+), releases a new report, “Every Hour Felt as Long as a Year”: Voices of Detainees Held by Afghanistan’s de facto General Directorate of Intelligence.
Based on in-depth interviews, the report documents arbitrary arrests, severe torture, and psychological abuse carried out by the de facto General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) between 2021 and 2024. The facilities covered in this report are closed to independent scrutiny and monitoring.
The report centres voices of individuals who have experienced torture and explores how these violations are experienced, remembered, and resisted. Rather than anonymized case studies, the report presents first-person narratives of human rights defenders, journalists, activists, lawyers, and former officials. They explain how torture is not just used to extract information, but also to punish perceived dissent and enforce ideological conformity. “They told me: ‘You worked with foreigners to corrupt Afghan women.’ Then they burned my leg with a hot rod. That mark is still there,” recalled one former human rights lawyer.
Others described being raped, waterboarded, or placed in prolonged solitary confinement. Many reported that their suffering did not end upon release. Several continue to live under Taliban surveillance, enduring repeated threats, harassment, and the fear of re-arrest.“Freedom from Taliban prisons does not mean true liberation,” said one activist.
The OMCT calls on the international community and the de facto authorities in Afghanistan to take immediate action to address these grave human rights violations. We urge the establishment of robust international accountability mechanisms, increased support for human rights organizations, and the provision of asylum and protection for those at risk.
We extend our deepest gratitude to the survivors who shared their stories, often at great personal risk. Their testimonies are not only evidence of the atrocities committed but also a powerful act of resistance against the ongoing repression.
