A released detainee in Kabul shows his prison number stamped on his hand. (AFP)

Kabul, Jan. 16 (Reuters): US forces in Afghanistan freed 81 suspected Taliban fighters from military jails across the country today and some of the released men said they had been mistreated and tortured in custody.

Aged between 19 and 64, looking pale and exhausted, the bearded men smiled and waved as they left the Afghan Supreme Court to begin their journeys home.

?They have been released from Bagram,? Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari said, referring to the main American base in Afghanistan, north of the capital Kabul.

?We will give them clothes and then send them home.?

At a brief hearing before their release, Shinwari warned the men not to talk about their imprisonment, saying it could harm the prospects of those still held, but some still spoke out.

?I was picked up on the basis of wrong information,? Shah Alim, a 19-year-old from the eastern province of Kunar, said. ?They poured water on me, deprived me of sleep and beat me during detention as part of their torture.?

Accusations of mistreatment of prisoners have dogged US military jails from Iraq, to Afghanistan and its base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

?I have very bad memories of the interrogation because they were torturing us,? said Abdul Manan, 35, also from Kunar. ?But after the interrogation period was over, everything was all right,? he said outside the Supreme Court.

US forces captured hundreds of prisoners when they toppled Afghanistan?s radical Islamist Taliban government in late 2001 for failing to surrender al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on US cities.

Prisoners deemed to be the greatest security risk were taken bound and shackled to Guantanamo Bay, while others were kept at US bases across Afghanistan.

The US said last week it would release the last four Britons and an Australian held at Guantanamo Bay for three years without charge after Britain and Australia had given Washington a number of unspecified ?security assurances?.