Afghan Biographies

Sabit, Abdul Jabbar Sabet


Name Sabit, Abdul Jabbar Sabet
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1945
Function/Grade Ex Attorney
History and Biodata

2. Previous Functions:
Advisor to the justice ministry (1977-1980,
Assistant director of Afghan Islamic University in Peshawar,
Reporter for Voice of America for 12 years,
Legal advisor to the interior ministry 2003 to 2005,
Attorney General of Afghanistan in 2005 (fired by President Karzai in 2008),
Nominated himself as candidate for presidential elections 2009,

3. Biodata:
abdul_jabar_sabitAbdul Jabar Sabit was born 1945 in Sorkhrod district of eastern Nangarhar province. He graduated from Habibia High School and received his bachelor's degree in political science from the law faculty of Kabul University. He earned his master's degree in economics and law in the United States in 1977.

Sabet 2006 was bizarrely elevated to the AG’s post two years ago with the help of the US and British Embassies in Kabul – and the connivance of controversial strongmen in and around Karzai’s court. Sabet boasts to friends of enjoying residency in Canada : his wife and children live in Montreal. Yet officials in Ottawa - at Foreign Affairs, Immigration and the Prime Minister’s Office - have refused since mid-March 2007 to confirm the status of President Karzai’s rogue Attorney General.

Sabet’s past is littered with reasons that he should never have gained entry into Canada, particularly due to his long history of association with the black prince of Afghan extremists, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Sabet was a longtime counsellor to Hekmatyar, once the United States’ most-favoured anti-Soviet guerrilla leader, but now on their most-wanted list of terrorists. In 1992, Sabet’s continuing links with Hekmatyar led to his dismissal from a job at the Voice of America in Washington D.C.

Sabet turned next to Canada, immigrating with his family to Montreal in 1999, where he became a familiar face at the downtown mosque, Masjid as-Salam. Sources within Montreal’s Afghan community confirm that Sabet portrayed himself as a simple refugee to gain residency, and that he failed to disclose the previous denial of re-entry into the U.S. Thus he allegedly committed two “material misrepresentations” with regard to Canadian regulations. Sabet is said to have collected welfare until his return to Kabul in 2003, where he picked up a lawyer’s position at the Interior Ministry.

Then, in an ironic twist typical of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, Sabet used his smooth command of English to form a relationship with a U.S. Justice Department adviser who was seeking favourable reviews of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. As a result, Sabet led an Afghan government inspection of the site, declaring afterward that there were "only one or two" complaints from prisoners, and that "conditions of the jail were humane. The rumours about prison conditions were all wrong."

Soon after, both the U.S. and British embassies in Kabul began lobbying for Sabet’s promotion, according to an aide of President Karzai’s who witnessed the sessions. Sabet was nominated as attorney general just months later. How that nomination was approved by parliament says much about the power structure in Kabul. In order to insure enough votes for Sabet, a deal was brokered by Karzai’s aides between the candidate and a key Karzai ally, Abdul Sayyaf. In return for Sabet lending support to the controversial amnesty bill that Sayyaf and other accused war criminals pushed through the house earlier this year, the nominee secured his confirmation as Attorney General. Since then, Sayyaf’s hold over Sabet has strengthened. According to a senior Justice Ministry source, most if not all of Sabet’s key staff appointments have been cleared through Sayyaf, particularly that of his deputy of narcotics affairs, General Stanakzai.

This left Sayyaf with two trusted henchmen in key counter-narcotics posts : earlier, he had used his influence to place a close aide named Sadat in the Interior Ministry’s hierarchy. Sabet, meanwhile, has been equally determined to succeed in the game of connections. Just days after securing the Attorney General’s chair, he elevated a minor police officer named Nadir Hamidi to the rank of full general and made him his deputy. Within weeks, Gen. Nadir - known widely as “Choor,” or briber - fled Afghanistan to Dubai, his pockets stuffed with several hundred thousand dollars of state funds. Sabet ducked accusations that he’d helped Nadir escape.

Then he made an even more disruptive appointment. General Kasim was a former security chief of Baghlan province, north of Kabul. A Hekmatyar loyalist like Sabet, he was facing corruption charges – until the Attorney General had his file wiped clean and installed him as chief of Kabul’s District Ten police station. Yet what is perhaps most remarkable about Sherpur in Kabul is that many of the homeowners are government officials, whose annual salaries would not otherwise enable them to live here for more than a few days. One of the mansions — three stories, several bedrooms, sweeping balconies — is owned by Abdul Jabbar Sabit, the former attorney general, who made a name for himself by declaring a “jihad” against corruption.

After he was fired by President Karzai, a video began circulating around town showing Mr. Sabit dancing giddily around a room and slurring his words, apparently drunk. Sabit´s house is available to rent for $5,000 a month

The former attorney-general Abdul Jabbar Sabit was kidnapped 20111006 in Kabul, a senior police officials said 2011107. He was seized by unidentified gunmen in Charasyab district and was probably taken to central Logar province, the Kabul police criminal investigation department chief, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zahir,  said. Without informing anyone, the ex-AG had gone to the Saqawa desert of the district, where there are many land disputes, according to the top police officer, who said they were investigation the matter.

 

A family member of Abdul Jabar Sabet, a former Attorney-General, said that Sabet was being held by the Afghan Taliban in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan in Pakistan.(20120111) During a visit to his farms in the Saqawa desert of Charasiab, Sabit was kidnapped on October 6, 2011.

 

However, he was sacked from the position in 2008 when he jumped into the presidential election. He was released on 20120906 and freed as a result of efforts by elders, Sabit was handed over to family members in central Logar province, Ehsanullah, a relative of the ex-AG, said. (20120906)

Last Modified 2013-02-22
Established 2009-10-27