The Afghan government has dropped corruption charges against a top aide to President Hamid Karzai who was indicted by a US-backed task force for taking a bribe, an official said Tuesday. Mohammad Zia Salehi, a senior official in Karzai's National Security Council, was arrested by the Major Crimes Task Force, a US-funded anti-graft body, in July after he was caught on a wiretap soliciting a bribe.
In return, Salehi reportedly held up an investigation into a company suspected of moving money for Afghan leaders, drug traffickers and insurgents. At the time, Karzai ordered Salehi to be released, saying that his arrest was unconstitutional and violated human rights.
Rahmatullah Nazari, Afghanistan's deputy attorney general, told AFP that Salehi had been cleared of the charges, seemingly on a technicality. "Under Afghanistan's laws, voice-tape can become evidence only in drugs-related cases," Nazari said.