Karzai Wants US to Arrest Afghan Bank Chief

Afghanistan has asked the US to arrest and hand over Abdul Qadeer Fitrat, the natin's Central Bank president who resigned citing fear of reprisals for his investigation of the Kabul Bank corruption scandal. Abdul Qadeer Fitrat resigned yesterday during a trip to the US, the New York Times reports. In a scathing resignation letter, he says Hamid Karzai’s administration constantly tried to block his inquiry, threatened him with legal action, and even “used law enforcement agencies against the staff of the central bank.”

Now the Karazai administration has issued a warrant alleging that Fitrat himself is involved in the bank’s corruption scandal, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Central Bank officials didn't oversee the activities of private banks,” causing $900 million in losses, a deputy attorney general said, adding that other central bank employees will also be prosecuted. But the US doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Afghanistan, so Fitrat is likely safe for now, the US embassy in Kabul tells the Journal. (More Kabul Bank stories.)