[JURIST] The US has sent at least 11 detainees to a facility in Afghanistan that has been shown to torture prisoners, two human rights groups reported [text, PDF] Saturday. The Open Society Institute of New York and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission [advocacy websites] alleged [AP report] that these detainees were sent to a National Directorate of Security (NDS) facility in Kandahar, which was condemned in a report [PDF; JURIST report] by the UN in October for “systematically tortur[ing]” prisoners during interrogations. The detainees documented in the new report were allegedly sent to this facility after July, when NATO and US forces were supposed to have stopped sending prisoners there due to torture allegations. US officials have not commented on the new report, but are cited in it as denying transfers of prisoners to the NDS Kandahar facility.

After release of the UN report in October, Afghan officials denied the torture allegations [JURIST report], saying there was no basis for the UN’s findings. Afghanistan has a history of criticism for human rights abuses. In September, Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] alleged that the Afghan Local Police had been committing serious human rights violations [JURIST report], including rape, murder, abduction, forced land seizures and illegal raids. Last March, the UN released a report alleging that the Afghan government’s corruption and short-term security goals were intensifying the country’s poverty issues [JURIST report]. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also delivered a report earlier that month saying that the government was stalling human rights progress [JURIST report] through abuse of power and violence against women.