KABUL - The control of Afghan-run prisons should not be transferred from Afghanistan's Justice Ministry to the Interior Ministry, Human Rights Watch has warned.
The Human Rights Watch made the warning as it is concerned about the heightened risk of torture and mistreatment of prisoners.

The decrees has went into effect on Tuesday, but the Human Rights Watch has urged Afghan President Hamid Karzai to revoke it.
Placing all prisoners under Interior Ministry control increases the likelihood that the Afghan police, who have been implicated in torture, would be in charge of suspects during interrogation, the Human Rights Watch has said.

According to the Asia director of the Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, greater police involvement in Afghan prisons may "lead to more torture, not less."

The Human Rights Watch has said that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had first proposed the transfer of Afghan prisons in April 2011 after more than 470 prisoners escaped from a jail in Kandahar.

It comes as the United Nations, in October last year, accused the Afghan National Directorate of Security and police of "systematically"
torturing prisoners.

But that the UN added that the mistreatment was not part of government policy.

NATO has said it has halted transfer of prisoners to 16 Afghan detention centers where the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has found evidence of torture and mistreatment by police and security officials.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior took over control of all Afghan prisons on Tuesday.