Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed death penalty for Kabul rape convicts.
Aimal Faizi, spokesman for President Karzai said the death penalty for the perpetrators of Paghman gang rape was signed by the President on Saturday.
"President Karzai signed off today on the order for execution of 5 criminals convicted of rape & kidnapping in Paghman incident," Faizai said.
The Appeals Court of Kabul awarded death sentence to 5 of the 7 convicts of a group involved in brutal beating, robbery and gang-rape of 4 women in capital Kabul on September 15th.
The convicts facing death penalty includes Azizullah, Nazar Mohammad, Qaisullah, Samiullah and Habibullah, who were involved in gang rape of 4 women.
The women were initially abducted while they were returning from a wedding ceremony and were repeatedly raped besides their belongings were robbed by the gang.
Source: Khaama Press, Sept. 27, 2014
In a Final Act, Karzai Orders Execution of 5 Men in Rape Case
Hamid Karzai's last major act as president of Afghanistan may well be his order on Saturday to execute 5 men who were convicted of rape after a trial that the United Nations' top human rights official has denounced as unfair.
The convictions were based entirely on the defendants' confessions, which all five men testified during the appeals process were obtained by torture at the hands of the police. 1 of the 5 men said he was beaten so badly that he would have confessed to incest with his mother.
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, called on Mr. Karzai and his successor, Ashraf Ghani, who will be inaugurated on Monday, not to carry out the death penalty "and to refer the case back to courts given the due process concerns," according to a statement issued by his spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani.
Mr. Zeid's appeal may well come too late, because there were indications that the executions would be carried out speedily. Mr. Karzai has already promised to see the men executed once the Supreme Court upholds their convictions, which it now has done.
The police chief of Kabul, Gen. Zaher Zaher, said on Afghan television on Saturday night that the 5 men would be hanged on the grounds of the main Pul-i-Charkhi prison, with the victims present as witnesses. He did not say when, but since Mr. Karzai is president for only 1 more day, it was likely that the order would be carried out on Sunday.
The 5 men were among 7 convicted of the rape and robbery of 4 women who were stopped by assailants in police uniforms as they returned from a wedding party just outside of Kabul on Aug. 23.
All 7 were convicted after a hurried trial on Sept. 7, but an appeals court reduced the death sentences of 2 of them to 20 years in prison. The 2 claimed they were burglars arrested in an unrelated crime. One suspect said the police forcibly put a police uniform on him and then photographed him in it. The accused were confronted by their victims in a lineup at which they were the only ones present, and 1 of the victims initially picked out a detective and a police cook as her assailants, until police officers corrected her and indicated the "correct" suspects, according to testimony at their appeals.
In addition, the three defense lawyers for the men said they had received death threats. One quit in the middle of the proceedings, while another said the lawyers were too frightened to mount any sort of defense. The public reacted angrily to the rapes, with many people complaining that the culprits - who come from an area well known for its many prominent gangsters and shady politicians - would just buy their way out of justice.
"No judiciary, anywhere in the world, is so robust that it can guarantee that innocent life will not be taken, and there is an alarming body of evidence to indicate that even well-functioning legal systems have sentenced to death men and women who were subsequently proven innocent," Mr. Zeid said.
Even before the trial of the 7 men took place, Mr. Karzai had publicly promised that they would be executed when found guilty, arousing criticism from human rights groups - mostly outside Afghanistan.
The president's spokesman, Aimal Faizi, announced on Twitter that the execution order had been signed.
1 of the defense lawyers, Najibullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, said that the execution order was invalid because Mr. Karzai's term in office expired constitutionally during the long delay in announcing the winner of the presidential elections.
"From the day they were arrested, all the actions against them were contrary to the laws," Najibullah said. "For example, the right to keep silent, the right to have a defense lawyer present, the right to have sufficient time to prepare a defense."
Patti Gossman, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said: "Whoever is pushing for this kind of vigilante justice does not have the interests of Afghan women, or civil society in general, in mind. It's been a show trial, and unfortunately many Afghans see it as justice - which speaks volumes for how little judicial reform has happened under Karzai."
In its statement, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said, "While this was a horrible crime, we have been concerned about the lack of due process and the failure to comply with national and international fair trial standards in the proceedings."
The United States has spent more than $900 million in an effort to improve the judiciary system and other aspects of the rule of law in Afghanistan in the past decade. The country's legal system has also received heavy investment from other Western donors, including the United Nations.
Source: New York Times, Sept. 27, 2014
