Afghanistan’s Taliban Monday carried out another public execution of a man charged with murder, defying international calls to stop the “inhuman” punishments. It was the third public execution within a week.
The Taliban Supreme Court said in an announcement that the execution had taken place in a sports stadium in Sheberghan, the capital of the northern Afghan province of Jowzjan. It said that government and judicial officials, as well as residents, were among the spectators.
The executed person was found guilty of stabbing to death a young man in 2022. The statement said he was tried in three Islamic courts and subsequent appellate tribunals before the judicial “order of retaliation was issued and approved” in line with Islamic law of Sharia.
The punishment was enforced after the Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, examined the ruling and endorsed it, the court said.
Last Thursday, the fundamentalist authorities carried out a double public execution at a football stadium in the southeast city of Ghazni, saying both men had been convicted of murder in separate cases.
That announcement outraged the United Nations and global human rights groups. They denounced the executions as against international law and called for ending them immediately,
“We oppose all executions as a violation of the right to life,” Amnesty International said in a statement in response to the double execution. It added that the protection of the right to a fair trial “remains seriously concerning” under the Taliban rule.
“It’s high time that the international community and the U.N. up the pressure on the blatant human rights violations by the Taliban and help ensure that international safeguards are respected in Afghanistan,” said Livia Saccardi, Amnesty International’s interim deputy regional director for South Asia.
The Taliban have executed five convicted murderers and flogged several hundred others, including women, in sports stadiums since regaining power in August 2021 and imposing their harsh interpretation of Islamic law on Afghanistan.
The de facto Afghan rulers have rejected criticism of their policies, saying the criminal justice system and governance at large are based on Islamic rules and guidelines.
The Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s rights to education and public life, barring female visitors from parks and gyms and forbidding girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade.
The international community has rejected the Taliban’s calls for granting their administration formal recognition, citing their treatment of Afghan women and other human rights concerns.
