PRAGUE (Reuters) – Four Czech soldiers will face trial for alleged crimes relating to the death of an Afghan soldier after he was detained and interrogated in 2018, Czech prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The Czech state attorney’s office said in a statement that four members of the 601st special operations forces group would stand trial on charges including extortion, insubordination, violation of guard duty obligations and failure to provide aid.
It did not identify the four, who could face life sentences if convicted.
The Czech defence ministry declined to comment.
A lawyer representing three of the defendants said they had strongly disagreed with the accusations from the start of the investigation.
“According to them, the act they were accused of did not happen and the prosecutor did not submit any usable evidence for the charges,” lawyer Radek Ondrus, who did not identify his clients, said in an emailed response to questions.
Czech public radio reported on its website that the accusations relate to the death of 19-year-old Wahidullah Khan after he was detained by Afghan forces over an attack on troops at the Shindand base in western Afghanistan in 2018 in which one Czech soldier was killed and two injured.
The New York Times first reported the incident in 2018. It said Khan had been beaten after being taken into custody by U.S. and Czech troops, was unconscious when he was returned to Afghan troops the same day and died shortly afterwards. It said U.S. and Czech troops were being investigated over the incident.
The Czech army operated in Afghanistan from 2002 until 2021. Its troops were deployed there as part of the U.N.-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) set up to assist the Afghan government in securing the country and training Afghan National Security Forces.
Czech troops were also part of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission established after ISAF was disbanded.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Bernadette Baum)
