KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan has some 12,500 prisoners, including 350 women, many of whom are being detained for "moral crimes" such as running away from home, the United Nations said on Monday.
"In 2001 in this country, there were around 600 prisoners and today they are around 12,500 -- 350 of them are women," Christine Oguz, head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul.
"We found half of the women are in prison for so called 'moral crime,' for example running away for home," she said.
"In another country, a lot of these women would have been considered as victims, not perpetrators. They are more often victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence than when compared to the female population of the country."
Oguz said around half the country's prisoners were awaiting trial and many hadn't had the chance to speak to a lawyer.
"You must have a right to defence, which by the way is also a constitutional right in this country: every person... can seek an advocate to defend his or her right but there are less than 600 advocates in this country," she said.
The Afghan judiciary has been the target of widespread criticism for the poor quality of its judges, corruption and the treatment of defendants.
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