Watchdog Calls for “Release” of Activists Who Exposed Sex Abuse

The statement said that Musa Mahmudi and Ehsanullah Hamidi, both civil society members from Logar province, were “arbitrarily detained” by the “National Directorate of Security (NDS)” on November 21 when they were “on their way to meet with the European Union ambassador in Kabul.”
The NDS has not confirmed reports that the two men are in its custody.
A mid-November article in the UK’s Guardian, which was based on findings of Mahmudi and Hamidi, alleged that “over 500” children and youth in “six schools” in Logar province had been sexually abused by a network of people, many of whom were in positions of authority.
According to the Amnesty report, the two civil society members began receiving threats on Facebook—some from officials in Logar-- after they gave interviews to the UK’s Guardian and Afghanistan’s TOLO News about the existence of a “paedophile ring.”
According to the Guardian, Mahmudi and Hamidi uncovered more than 100 videos of alleged abuse, and some of the victims shown on the videos were subsequently murdered, presumably for “dishonoring” their families.
The Amnesty International report stated:
“One day before he disappeared, Musa Mahmudi told a fellow Afghan human rights defender that he feared for his safety and that the NDS was planning to arrest him. He added that he was worried that he was under surveillance. Musa Mahmudi said that he had also received death threats, accusing him of ‘dishonoring the people of Logar.’”
Samira Hamidi, South Asia Campaigner at Amnesty International, said the two activists are “in custody of the National Directorate of Security” and that “they are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.”
“Rather than punishing them for speaking out against these horrific crimes, the authorities should praise them for their work and hold the suspected perpetrators accountable through fair trials and without recourse to the death penalty,” Hamidi said.
Members of parliament have engaged in heated debate over the veracity of the reports, and investigative teams were dispatched.