Based on reporting by RFE/RL, AP, and dpa 
 
 Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has assigned a team to investigate claims by the United Nations that prisoners in government custody were being tortured and abused.A presidential office statement on January 22 said the delegation will "fully investigate the claims of torture, mistreatment, death threats, and sexual abuse" in detention facilities.The statement said the delegation should report back to Karzai within two weeks "so that follow-up measures can be taken. "In a report issued on January 20, thethat "torture persists and remains a serious concern in numerous detention facilities across Afghanistan.
– Hamid Karzai has ordered an investigation into reports of torture at Afghanistan's prisons, in the wake of a UN report claiming that nearly a third of detainees NATO had transferred into Afghan custody had been abused or tortured. But the team Karzai appointed includes advisers from the interior ministry and the National Directorate of Security, both of which were implicated in the UN report, al-Jazeera reports. Afghanistan's initial response to the report was to deny it. "If we rip out people's fingernails, then show the scars. Prove it," one official was quoted as saying. Now Karzai is promising the team will "fully investigate" the claims, and report back in two weeks "so that follow-up measures can be taken," according to Radio Free Europe. But one Kabul lawyer predicts the panel will conveniently find nothing. "They will only speak in front of NDS authorities, to people they are confident will not speak up."