Embattled VP flies to Turkey; exile possible

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s controversial first vice president, who has been under investigation and virtual house arrest for months on accusations of assault, flew to Turkey on Saturday for “medical tests,” according to his aides and Afghan government officials.

But human rights groups, Afghan analysts and others say they suspect that Abdurrashid Dostum, a former ethnic Uzbek army general and militia leader, was flying into exile to avoid prosecution, possibly in a deal with the government.

“Vice President Dostum does have a judicial case pending, but he has gone to Turkey for health tests. We pray for his health and return,” Shah Hussain Murtazavi, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, told journalists Saturday afternoon.

Dostum, 63, was publicly accused by an elderly rival politician in December of forcibly detaining the man in a private compound and ordering guards to beat and rape him. The powerful warlord claimed that the charges were a political plot against him, but the incident put President Ashraf Ghani under strong foreign pressure to bring Dostum to justice.

Since then, the attorney general’s office has been seeking to investigate the case, but Dostum has refused to be questioned and allowed only several of his guards to submit to official requests. Meanwhile, private negotiations have reportedly been held between him and Ghani’s aides for a political solution to the stalemate.

Despite being publicly disgraced and mostly confined to his heavily guarded compound in the capital, Dostum has inspired large rallies of ethnic Uzbek supporters in his northern provincial stronghold, with some calling for him to revolt against the government. He has been estranged from Ghani for months but not removed from office.