Afghan President Hamid Karzai has criticized the U.S. military for violating an agreement and illegally continuing to hold Afghans as prisoners against the orders of the Afghan government and courts.

The deal, signed in March, gave the US six months to transfer the captured Afghans – an agreement the US has not upheld. Karzai released a statement Monday calling the failure to hand over detainees “a serious breach of the Memorandum of Understanding.” The Afghan president also ordered his forces to seize control of the Parwan detention facility, where US forces continue to hold prisoners in a closed-off section, many of which were recently captured.

Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi told reporters that US troops are illegally holding more than 70 detainees whose release has been ordered by Afghan courts. Afghan courts have acquitted 57 of these prisoners, but the US has still refused to let them go, citing them as a danger to US national security. [link to rt.com]