His right arm bandaged to cover the wounds he acquired a week previously when he was almost killed by a Taliban bomb, Kabul's chief police investigator incredulously stabs an official document itemising all his assets.

"No, no, no - this is all wrong. I did not write this. I do not have one phennig, one cent or one penny in Dubai!" he says of a column on an official asset registration form marked "very secret" with his signature.