Since retaking control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have executed one person in public for the first time that has been formally confirmed. A government official verified that a guy accused of murdering someone has been put to death in the country’s west, according to Reuters.
According to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, the accused was executed in front of several senior Taliban officials after he allegedly stabbed another man in the Farah province.
The execution was carried out, according to the official statement, by the victim’s father.
Public hangings and lashings have been placed frequently under the previous Taliban government, but this is the first time that it has been documented recently. The Afghan Supreme Court has recently sentenced a number of men and women to public floggings for having an affair.
The Supreme Spiritual Leader of the Taliban gave his blessing to the case, which was heard in three different courts and resulted in a public execution. According to the spokesperson, the acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, acting deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, acting chief justice, acting foreign minister, and acting education minister were among those present for the execution.
During the previous Taliban rule of the country in the late 1990s, those found guilty of crimes in Taliban tribunals were subjected to public executions, floggings, and stonings.
An economic crisis and the lack of official recognition from the international community have made it difficult for the former insurgents to make the transition from fighting to ruling.
UN worried about the condition of Afghanistan under the Taliban
Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s highest spiritual leader, has given the courts across the nation instructions to impose comparable penalties for offenses that violate Sharia law. This happened after Afghanistan was encouraged by the UN to stop public hangings and killings right away.
According to Stephanie Tremblay, an associate spokesperson for the U.N., Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced concern over the public execution and reiterated the U.N. position that “the death penalty cannot be reconciled with full respect for the right to life.”