4 Taliban Escapees Are Recaptured

Soldiers of Afghan National Army are seen in front of the main gate of the Policharki Prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 27, 2006. Four Taliban prisoners who escaped from Afghanistan's most notorious Policharki Prison earlier this year have been recaptured in Bulgaria and Uzbekistan, the Interpol chief in Afghanistan said Monday, May 15, 2006. Seven Taliban inmates in January disguised themselves as visitors to escape the high-security prison. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq) (Musadeq Sadeq - AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Four Taliban prisoners who escaped from Afghanistan's most notorious prison earlier this year have been recaptured in Bulgaria and Uzbekistan, an Interpol official said Monday.

In January, seven Taliban inmates disguised themselves as visitors to escape the high-security Policharki Prison on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul. Four were captured last month, said Gen. Ali Shah Paktiawal, director of Interpol police in Afghanistan.

Two were captured in Bulgaria and two in Uzbekistan, and they will be sent back to Afghanistan when identification procedures have been completed, he said.

There was no immediate confirmation of the arrests from authorities in those countries.

Four police officers on duty at the prison when the seven escaped were tried and found guilty of not fulfilling their official duty and have been sentenced to four- and five-year prison terms, Sayed Fazel Karim Sadat, the chief of police for the attorney general, told The Associated Press.

Eleven officers were arrested initially, but seven were later released.

Sadat said he received a phone call about a week after the escape from a man claiming to be one of the seven escapees. The man claimed that the Taliban had paid $200,000 to bribe officials to help them escape.

"The person told me ... 'We paid $200,000 for the escape opportunity, then you arrested innocent people,'" Sadat said.

Despite the convictions of the four prison police officers, Sadat said officials never uncovered specific evidence that any police officials helped the prisoners escape.

"We never learned who received this money, if anyone. It is still an open question," he said.

At the time of the escape, officials said the seven militants tricked their guards into letting them walk out of the overcrowded prison by marking their hands with a fake ink stamp similar to one used to identify jail visitors.

At the time, prisoners did not wear uniforms and the stamp was the main method used to differentiate detainees from visitors.

After the escapes, officials in February forced prisoners to wear uniforms, sparking a four-day riot that left six inmates dead and 40 injured.

The seven escapees had all been caught in the last 18 months fighting for the Taliban in the volatile southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. They had been sentenced to prison terms of about 16 years.

Policharki is Afghanistan's main prison, notorious for its harsh and overcrowded conditions. It was a scene of summary executions under a series of former regimes, most recently the hard-line Taliban.

The prison is being renovated ahead of the expected arrival of some 110 Afghan terrorist suspects later this year from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Recent riots and jailbreaks have cast doubts over its readiness.

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Associated Press reporter Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.