BAGHLAN - Baghlan police officials said that the man detained for beating journalists has been released from prison. The alleged beatings occurred last week. Reporters for Tanweer Independent TV say they were assaulted by security guards working for the mayor of Pul-e-Khumri.

“The detained person, whose name is Hamid, is the cousin of Pul-e-Khumri mayor and he is one of the people who at the beginning of last week seriously beat our reporters,” said the manager of Tanweer TV, Sher Muhammad Jahesh.“Baghlan Police only detained one of the men who beat our reporters and they could not keep him in the detention center for long so they released him.”

In a letter sent to the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Information, the National Directorate of Security and the Attorney General’s office, Afghanistan’s National Journalists demanded that the men who beat the reporters be immediately re-detained. The letter also mentioned that officials within the Provincial Prosecutor’s office and the police have been intimidating employees of Tanweer TV.

The Journalist Union also alleges that family members and relatives of the former mayor of Pul-e-Khumri misuse their influence by intimidating judges to side with the family and its employees against Tanweer TV workers.

Source: 8Subh Daily