Woman's Executioners Live Freely Under Peace Programme

The woman they put to death, Sanam, was a resident of Khordak village in Badghis' Qads district. She was accused by a Taliban drum-head court of having an illicit relationship with a wealthy local man Gul Mohammad, and was sentenced the death. Mohammad, on the other hand, was lashed and fined.

Badghis deputy governor Abdul Ghani Sabari said Tuesday that those who issued the sentence and executed Sanam have since joined the official government programme for reintegration of insurgents, but they continue to defend their actions.

"They joined the peace process and right now they are living in Qala-e Nawo, the capital of the province," he said. "They executed the poor woman without proof or evidence."

The Taliban mullah Malawi Asfandyar, who issued Sanam's sentence, told TOLOnews Tuesday that she confessed to the "crime" and so she must be killed.

Asfanyar, a former member of the Taliban Ulema Council in Badghis, admitted that the woman was killed by a member of his group, Mullah Yousouf, and that all those who were involved in that incident had joined the peace programme and were living freely in the province, exempt from all responsibility.

Asfandyar said that Sanam was executed because she did not have any relatives, whereas the man was released after he was lashed and fined because he belonged to relatives within the group.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in nearby Herat province condemned the action, saying it was a crime and that there should be an investigation with those responsible brought to trial.

"The perpetrators [of this crime] are still not executed – my request is to execute them," Herat AIHRC chief Abdul Qadir Rahimi told TOLOnews.

It remains unclear both in law and in practice whether those who have committed serious crimes, but who later join the government reconciliation programme will ever be punished or if their past deeds are ignored.

Source: Tolo News