Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday said that he has written a letter to the US President Donald Trump that an ex-Afghan soldier who killed three Australians in 2012 should not be released.
The man, Hekmatullah, has spent seven years in jail after killing three Australians soldiers at their base in Tarin Kowt of the southern Uruzgan province. Two other Australians were wounded in the attack.
Australian officials have told the families of the three Australians that it was likely Hkematullah would be one of Taliban prisoners to be released as part of US-Taliban deal, ABC News reported.
Australian PM has appealed to Trump that Hekmatullah should be kept behind bars.
“Hekmatullah was responsible for murdering three Australians, and our position is that he should never be released,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
“We do not believe that his release adds to peace in this region. I can’t promise you the outcome we all want here, but it’s certainly the outcome we’ll continue to press for as hard as we can.”
This as the government of Afghanistan will release the remaining 400 Taliban controversial prisoners to pave the way for an early start to intra-Afghan negotiations and also remove the last hurdle on the path to the peace process.
The members of the Consultative Loya Jirga for Peace have ended its three days consultations and they issued a resolution which has 25-articles, supporting the peace process and the release of remaining Taliban inmates.
The members of the Loya Jirga made a “history” today, President Ashraf Ghani said, welcoming their suggestion to release 400 controversial Taliban prisoners. Ghani says he will sign a decree to release them based on the request of the Loya Jirga. He also thanked the members of Jirga for clear resolution on the peace which determines the unified voice of Afghans to reach a durable peace.
