BRITAIN: An Afghan warlord, Faryadi Sarwar Zardad, was convicted at his Old Bailey retrial yesterday of a "heinous" campaign of torture and hostage-taking in his homeland.
Zardad pursued a cruel and merciless reign of fear in Afghanistan between 1992 and 1996.
He and his men kept a "human dog" to savage victims, the court had heard.
Zardad was tracked down in London, arrested and accused of plotting to take hostages and torture them.
Many of his victims - some in fear of their lives - gave evidence from the British embassy in Kabul via video link in the two ground-breaking trials.
In the first, last year, the jurors had been unable to agree on their verdicts and the prosecution decided he should be retried.
The cost of the case is estimated to exceed £3 million.
It involved a lengthy police investigation both in Britain and Afghanistan that led to the trials.
The investigation also diverted valuable anti-terrorist resources to pursue allegations twice against a foreign national accused of crimes allegedly committed outside the UK.
Zardad was first tracked down at his suburban home in south London by John Simpson for BBC's Newsnight.
The programme was seen by a member of the parliamentary human rights committee and referred to the Home Office, which asked anti-terrorist officers to investigate.
But suggestions that they were under political pressure have been denied.
Officers made several trips to Afghanistan.
Under armed escort they tracked down Zardad's alleged victims and arranged for them to give evidence via video link from the embassy.
Zardad (41), of Gleneagles Road, Streatham, south London, denied conspiracy to torture and take hostages between 1992 and 1996.