A UN report, released on Monday, urged the Afghan government to end public executions and also criticized public stoning and flogging since the Taliban came to power in the country.
In the past six months, 274 men, 58 women and two children have been publicly whipped in the country, according to a report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
“Corporal punishment is a violation of the Convention against Torture and it must end,” said UNAMA human rights chief Fiona Frazer, who also called for an immediate moratorium on executions.
The Taliban Foreign Ministry said in response that the laws of Afghanistan are determined according to Islamic rules and guidelines and that the vast majority of Afghans follow those rules.
“In case of conflict between international human rights law and Islamic law, the government is obliged to follow Islamic law,” the ministry said in a statement.
There has been a significant increase in the number and regularity of court-imposed corporal punishment since November, according to the report.
That month, the main government spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, repeated on the social network Twitter comments by the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, about the judges and the way they applied Islamic law.
Since then, UNAMA has documented at least 43 cases of public flogging involving 274 men, 58 women and two children.
Most of the punishments were related to adultery and “runaway” convictions, according to the report. Other alleged crimes included robbery, homosexuality, alcohol use, fraud, and drug trafficking.
In a video message, Taliban-appointed deputy attorney general Abdul Malik Haqqani said last week that the Afghan Supreme Court had delivered 175 retribution verdicts since he took power, including 79 floggings and 37 stonings.
These verdicts establish the right of an alleged victim, or relative of a victim of a crime, to punish or pardon the perpetrator. Haqqani said that the Taliban leadership is committed to complying with these sentences.
Source: TSF
