A British security contractor and his Afghan translator were given two years in prison for bribing government officials, it has emerged.
William Shaw and the translator were arrested on January 25 in Kabul accused of paying 25,000 dollars to two intelligence service agents to get them to release two armoured vehicles that had been confiscated because they were not properly registered.
Their company, London-based G4S, never got the vehicles out of police custody because officers became suspicious when drivers appeared to take the cars away.
The two men who received the bribe disappeared.
The sentences, imposed on Monday, and the convictions came from a special tribunal for corruption cases and can be appealed. Shaw was also fined 25,000 dollars.
G4S did not want to comment on the case.
The West has applied increasing pressure on President Hamid Karzai to crack down on rampant corruption, while he has countered that international companies are also guilty of bribery and influence peddling.
Western diplomats say a culture of graft risks undermining the Afghan government's legitimacy amid an ongoing military offensive to oust the resurgent Taliban.
