Taliban publicly executes murder suspect; high authorities are present

According to a spokesperson for the Taliban government, a man was executed in public on Wednesday in western Afghanistan on murder charges. This was the first reported public execution since the Taliban gained control of the nation last year.

Senior Taliban officials were present for the man’s execution in western Farah province, which involved the man accused of fatally stabbing another man in 2017.

In a later statement, Mujahid said that the victim’s father was the one who executed the man by shooting him three times.

More than a dozen senior Taliban officials, including the country’s chief justice, acting foreign minister, and acting education minister, as well as acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and acting deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, reportedly attended the execution.

It follows the Supreme Court of the nation’s announcement that public beatings of men and women convicted of crimes like robbery and adultery had occurred in various provinces recently, perhaps returning to customs prevalent under its tough control in the 1990s.

Last month, a representative of the U.N. human rights office urged the Taliban government to immediately stop using public floggings in Afghanistan.

According to a court statement, the Taliban’s highest spiritual commander told judges in a meeting in November that sentencing should follow sharia law.

Under the Taliban’s previous regime from 1996 to 2001, there were public beatings and stoning deaths.

Even though the death sentence was still allowed in Afghanistan, such penalties ultimately became uncommon and were denounced by the subsequent Afghan regimes that were supported by international powers.

(Reuters)