3 US vigilantes appear in Afghan trial

Three Americans, arrested in the Afghan capital for running a private jail, made a preliminary appearance in court on Sunday. The three were arrested this month after a brief shootout in Kabul. They and some Afghan accomplices had been illegally detaining and interrogating people they believed to be terrorists.

The leader of the group of vigilantes is Jonathan, whom the US military says had passed himself off as a US government official. The US military and NATO peacekeepers have said the group was not acting on behalf of, or in conjunction with, their forces.

The gang was caught with eight prisoners in their jail in a Kabul house. The arrests have been a headache for foreign forces in Afghanistan where the US military has been accused of prison excesses.