Former British army officer jailed alongside al-Qaida insurgents in Kabul

A former British army officer sentenced to two years for bribing Afghan officials is adjusting to a dangerous new life alongside insurgent commanders inside the maximum security wing of Afghanistan's most notorious prison. Bill Shaw, a manager at G4S, the private security company that guards the British embassy in Kabul, was moved to the infamous Pul-e-Charkhi prison on Tuesday where he was greeted by his fellow inmates, including a senior al-Qaida fighter who embraced and kissed the 52-year-old grandfather. Shaw's wife, Liz, who travelled to Afghanistan this week with her daughter to visit him, said the fact that the 10 other inmates of the maximum security wing knew all about him before he arrived was "a bit nerve-wracking". "He served in the army for 28 years. He served in Iraq, he was there when they went in from Kuwait. I just feel that he is a bit of target," she said. The British embassy and the prison's governor are also worried about his safety. The governor said Shaw's request to work in the prison garden could only be granted when other inmates were locked inside. Nonetheless, Lisa Luckyn-Malone, Shaw's daughter, said that after two months of confinement in a British-funded facility built to house Afghanistan's drug lords, coming to Pul-e-Charkhi is "like Christmas". "It's very difficult because what do you deny a man? Do you deny him the socialising aspect or his safety?" she said. During his time confined in the UK-backed Counter Narcotics Justice Centre (CNJC), he received no visits from consular staff at the embassy and relied on colleagues from G4S, which has major operations in Afghanistan, to bring him letters from his family. However, his son-in-law, a soldier serving with the British army, did manage to visit the facility. Shaw was still in the CNJC when his wife and daughter first visited him on Monday and were denied any physical contact during a conversation conducted through a glass barrier. But sympathetic guards did let the women kiss him through the holes of a wire fence. It was "very humiliating and distressing, but it allowed us that little bit of contact," said Luckyn-Malone. It was a different story the following day when he was moved to Pul-e-Charkhi, where the governor allowed Shaw to be unshackled and meet his wife and daughter in his office. Two of the 10 inmates in the maximum security wing are also foreigners – one British man who has served two and a half years of a fraud sentence and a South African who was convicted of attempting to smuggle heroin out of Kabul airport in a tub of bodybuilding protein powder. Shaw was sentenced in April to two years in prison and fined $25,000 (£17,000) by a special anti-corruption court funded by UK government money. No witnesses were produced and the prosecution was given an extra month to find evidence after failing to prove its case. "There was never a presumption of innocence," his daughter said. His wife said that when her husband walked into court and saw the judge he "just knew" he would not be returning to the UK. They hope an appeal will be successful. In the meantime Shaw will rely on visits from colleagues from G4S, who are distraught by the fate of a popular colleague who has worked in Afghanistan for two years. "Apparently the Gurkhas cried for three days when he was arrested, the cleaning ladies and everybody," said Shaw's wife. "I've never seen so many grown men cry." What led to arrest? Bill Shaw's ordeal began in a hail of bullets last October when Afghan security services confiscated two bulletproof cars owned by his employer, the private security firm G4S. The armoured cars had not been fully registered, a common problem for security companies as the interior ministry often makes it impossible to acquire full registration. Shaw let them take the cars after the Afghans sprayed bullets around the feet of G4S staff. The firm was told the cars would only be released if it paid $10,000 per car – a figure that later mysteriously rose to $12,500. G4S reluctantly paid up, but then complained to the authorities after another car was impounded months later. The Afghan inquiry, which Shaw cooperated with, ultimately led to him being arrested for allegedly bribing an Afghan official, although his lawyer argues that the prosecution never proved that the man who received the money was a government employee. "I personally think that he dared to question what was happening," said his wife, Liz. "If he had just conformed and done what everybody else does it would probably never have been noticed." It is widely suspected in Kabul that the Afghan government pushed for his prosecution in response to heavy pressure from the US and UK for a crackdown on official corruption.