Head of Nangarhar customs office, Hashmatullah Walizai, and five other officials of his department were arrested on corruption charges, the provincial governor Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhil said on Sunday.

He said the arrested officials were sent to Kabul for further investigation. 

He did not provide further details about the arrest of the officials.

“Evidence collected by one of our key institutions showed that undocumented vehicles were not processed well. There was corruption in the process,” Nangarhar governor Zia-Ul-Haq Amarkhil said.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) said that a three-member team of the high office of oversight and anti-corruption that was sent to Khost for assessment of local institutions have been arrested. 

“They were arrested on charges of accepting 300,000 Afs in bribes,” the AGO spokesman Jamshid Rasuli said.

Also, Lalai Hamidzai, a former MP from Kandahar, was arrested when he landed in Kabul on Saturday evening and was taken to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, according to sources.

Hamidzai was released following a protest by his supporters, sources said. 

On February 6, three members of the Meshrano Jirga, the Upper House of Parliament, were sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison each by the primary court of the Anti-Corruption Justice Center on charges of accepting $40,000 in bribe money from customs officials in Balkh, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) said.

Senators Mohammad Anwar Bashliq, Mohammad Azim Qoyash and Liyaqatullah Babakarkhil are accused of asking for $60,000 in bribe money from customs officials in the Hairatan port in the northern province of Balkh, the AGO said.  

They were arrested last year in December while accepting $40,000 in bribe money, according to the AGO.