Zemarai Paikan, former top Afghan police commander, arrested

Paikan had been sentenced by the country’s anti-corruption court to over eight years in prison in late 2017over negligence and misuse of authority.

In December last year, President Ashraf Ghani, addressing an annual anti-corruption conference, ordered the acting interior minister to immediately arrest Paikan.

The president said that failure to arrest Paikan had brought Afghanistan’s reputation and the government’s political will into question.

“He had turned a nationwide institution which was Civil Order Police into a source of corruption,” Ghani said. “We cannot tolerate that when the justice centre issues an order, it is not implemented.”