Karzai confirms he intervened to get arrested official released

 Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed Sunday that he engineered the release of Mohammed Zia Saleh, a top security official arrested earlier this year on suspicion of corruption.

Karzai told the ABC program "This

Week" that Saleh's arrest at his home evoked memories of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

"I have intervened," Karzai said. "I am the president of the country. I must uphold the constitution and do things legally."

Karzai's commitment to ending chronic corruption in Afghanistan has been questioned due to incidents such as Saleh's release and the president's efforts to exert control over anti-corruption units set up with assistance from U.S. security agencies.

"The bodies will stay to work, but they should be within the confines of the Afghan law, within the confines of the Afghan penal code, and within respect of human rights and should be sovereign Afghan bodies, not run or paid by any outside entities," Karzai said.

He said he would announce on Monday "a new instruction to bring these two bodies in accordance with Afghan laws and within the sovereignty of the Afghan state."

Karzai said he "intervened very strongly" in the Saleh case because "this man was taken out of his home in the middle of the night."

Such a detention reminded the Afghan people of the Soviet occupation, Karzai said.

"That case is already investigation," Karzai said. "Corruption should be handled most effectively and dedicatedly and with a lot of pressure, but it has to be across the board and apolitical and without vested foreign interest."