Afghan Vice President Flies to Turkey Amid Torture and Rape Allegations
By MUJIB MASHALMAY 19, 2017
KABUL, Afghanistan — In the dark of night and amid a criminal investigation into rape accusations against him, Afghanistan’s embattled vice president, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, left for Turkey on Friday in what Afghan
and Western officials suggested could be another long exile for the former warlord.
Twice, Mr. Ghani had spoken to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey,
and a Turkish plane once came to Kabul to pick up General Dostum, but he refused to go, Afghan officials said.
General Dostum has been fighting for political survival for months after a northern elder claimed he had been abducted from a sports match
and then tortured and raped by the vice president and his guards.
After those accusations were made public, the government of President Ashraf Ghani
and his Western backers made a strong initial push to get General Dostum to surrender for questioning.
The younger Dostum has been taking a more prominent role in the decision-making of his father’s Junbish
party as the vice president has remained under de facto house arrest in his residence in central Kabul.
On Friday, they said, General Dostum showed no such hesitation, with his eldest
son, Batur, playing an important role in persuading his father to leave.