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'Detain Ghani for stealing public wealth': Afghan embassy in Tajikistan 'urges' Interpol
Ghani, who fled from Afghanistan on August 15, reportedly took with him 'four cars and a helicopter full of cash.'
The Afghan embassy in Tajikistan has “requested” the Interpol to detain former Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani, as well as two others, for allegedly stealing public wealth, TOLOnews has reported. Ghani, who the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Wednesday was allowed to enter the kingdom on “humanitarian grounds,” fled from his country on August 15, just hours after the Taliban captured the capital city of Kabul.
Also Read | President Ashraf Ghani leaves Afghanistan as Taliban take over Kabul
Ghani, it was reported, took “four cars and a helicopter full of cash” with him while escaping from Afghanistan.
Also Read | Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan with 4 cars, chopper full of cash: Report
“The Afghan embassy in Tajikistan has asked Interpol police to detain Ashraf Ghani, Hamdallah Mohib and Fazal Mahmood Fazli on charges of stealing public wealth so that the funds could be returned to Afghanistan, sources said,” the official Twitter account of Tolonews, the country’s first 24-hour news and current affairs television network, informed.
Mohib was Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor (NSA) before Taliban seized power, while Fazli was the head of the administrative office of the Afghan president.
On August 16, a day after Ghani’s escape, the Afghan embassy in India put out a tweet, stating that Ghani fled with his “crooks.” The tweet labelled him a “fugitive,” and sought an apology from the Afghans for serving him. However, Abdulhaq Azad, the embassy’s press secretary in India, later said that he had lost access to its Twitter handle, and claimed that the account had been “hacked.”
Also Read | Afghan embassy in India slams president Ashraf Ghani, official says Twitter account hacked
In his homeland, Ghani has come under fire for abandoning his country’s people, though he claimed that he left to ensure there was no "bloodshed.” In his absence, first vice president Amrullah Saleh, who himself is in hiding, declared on Tuesday he was taking over as Afghanistan’s caretaker president in accordance with the Constitution of Afghanistan. According to Mohammad Zahir Aghbhar, the country’s envoy to Tajikistan, Saleh is indeed the current official acting president, reported Tolonews.
