News Center- Amnesty International released a letter on Monday, expressing concerns about the ongoing detention and risk of torture of Manizha Seddiqi, a women’s human rights defender in Taliban prison.

Addressing Abdul Haq Wasiq, the head of the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), the letter demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Manizha Seddiqi.

“Manizha Seddiqi, a member of the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women, was forcibly disappeared on 9 October 2023 and found weeks later in the custody of the Taliban. She was sent to Pule-Charkhi prison in Kabul on 5 December 2023. She has been arbitrarily detained simply for exercising her rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” the letter said.

Amnesty International’s findings indicate that Manizha Seddiqi has been deprived of family visits, lacks access to lawyers as well as access to medical care and is in a deteriorating health condition.

Expressing deeply concerns, the letter said, “She is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, a concern amplified by Amnesty International’s documentation on people deprived of their liberty in Taliban’s detention centres and prisons.”

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) published a report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan from January 2022 and July 2023. Half of the 1,600 human rights violations in Taliban prisons involved torture or other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Additionally, people are often detained in undignified conditions and without access to the necessary medical care, according to the report.

“The arrest of Manizha Seddiqi contravenes international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Afghanistan is a state party. It is a clear violation of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” said the letter calling on Abdul Haq Wasiq to immediately and unconditionally release Manizha Seddiqi, pending her release, ensure that her detention conditions meet international standards, and that she is provided with access to lawyers and medical care, and can receive family visits, immediately stop subjecting women and their families to arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, and other grave human rights violations simply for exercising their rights.