Afghanistan: Russian Member of Taliban First Military Detainee Brought to US for Trial in Terror Case

A Russian member of the Taliban has become the first military detainee from Afghanistan transferred to the US for a terror trial.

Irek Hamidullan, a Russian veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, was detained in 2009 after allegedly participating in an assault on Afghan border police and US troops.

He had been held at the US Parwan detention centre at Bagram airfield since his capture.

Hamidullan faces up to life imprisonment if he is convicted. He faces charges of providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy and attempt to destroy a US military aircraft, and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.

The charge of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction carries the possibility of a death sentence but Assistant US Attorney James Gillis said that the attorney general is not seeking this sentence.

National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said that the decision to transfer Hamidullan was taken following an agreement made by the US that it would pass all control of prisons in Afghanistan to the Afghan government next year.

Thirteen non-Afghan prisoners remain at Parwan detention centre and the Obama administration is facing pressure to transfer the detainees before December when the allied forces' combat mission ends.