Death Penalty News

The Penal Code promulgated by the Taliban in January 2026 creates a hierarchy of injuries inflicted upon women within Afghan households. Marzieh Hamidi, an athlete and refugee in France, denounces the inadequacy of the concrete measures taken by the international community. In Afghanistan, in 2026, a man can strike his wife as long as he does not break her bones. Fracturing an arm may be worth fifteen days in prison, whereas certain acts of violence are treated as minor offenses compared to other social infractions: the mistreatment of a camel is punishable by more than six months of incarceration. This is neither a rumor nor an exaggeration; it is precisely what is stipulated in the new Penal Code promulgated by the Taliban in January 2026, which came into force without public debate or consultation. This text categorizes injuries, regulates brutality, and institutionalizes a new structural legal inequality between men and women.

The Taliban has passed a new law in Afghanistan allowing husbands to beat their wives as long as there is no serious bodily harm in a new criminal code published by the group.  The 90-page penal code, signed by Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban's supreme leader, sets out different levels of punishments for people depending on their standing in society.  Article 9 of the code divides Afghan society into four categories: religious scholars (ulama), the elite (ashraf), the middle class, and the lower class. 

The U.S. Justice Department has indicated its intent to pursue the death penalty against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan national accused of fatally shooting one West Virginia National Guard member and seriously wounding another near the White House in late November 2025. WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they intend to seek the death penalty against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29-year-old Afghan national accused of ambushing two West Virginia National Guard members near the White House, killing one and gravely injuring the other. Lakanwal pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington to nine federal charges, including first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill and illegal possession of a firearm. The arraignment before Judge Amit Mehta came amid indications from prosecutors that they are working toward "death-eligible charges" — potentially through additional or amended counts — as the case advances.

Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has authorised the killing of 11 categories of people under a newly endorsed Taliban penal code, granting himself sole authority to approve executions deemed necessary for what the movement describes as the “public interest”.  Article 16 of the Taliban’s new penal code allows for “discretionary execution” ( ta’zir by death) of individuals accused of a broad range of offences, including armed opposition to the Taliban, promoting beliefs considered contrary to Islam, sorcery and repeat criminal acts, according to the text reviewed by Amu TV. 

The Taliban said six people were executed during the 2025 calendar year under orders issued by the group’s leader, while at least 1,118 others were publicly flogged by Taliban courts across Afghanistan. Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban’s deputy spokesperson, said in a statement posted on X on Thursday that the executions were carried out in the provinces of Farah, Nimruz, Badghis and Khost after court rulings and approval by the Taliban leader. He said the punishments were imposed under the principle of retribution, or qisas .

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Iran executed three Afghan nationals on the first day of 2025 at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, according to two human rights watchdog organizations. Halvash reported that Iran executed two individuals from Afghanistan and one Baloch national in Bandar Abbas prison. They were executed without holding a last meeting with their families, the watchdog said. Another human rights watchdog, Henvaw, reported the execution of an Afghan national.

Taliban authorities in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday executed a convicted murderer by gunfire at a sports stadium, in the sixth public execution since their return to power. The condemned man was shot with three bullets to the chest by a member of the victim's family in front of thousands of spectators in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. The evening before the execution the governor's office called on officials and residents to "attend this event" on social media.

The Taliban’s Supreme Leader has vowed to start stoning women to death in public as he declared the fight against Western democracy will continue. “You say it’s a violation of women’s rights when we stone them to death,” said Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada in a voice message, aired on state television over the weekend, addressing Western officials.

The man was shot five times in front of the family of his victim at a sports stadium today. KABUL: Taliban authorities publicly executed a convicted murderer by gunfire in a sports stadium today, officials said, the third death penalty carried out in Afghanistan in a matter of days. The man – found guilty of a January 2022 knife murder – was executed in northern Sheberghan city on a death warrant signed by Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada, a Supreme Court statement said.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban carried out a double public execution Thursday at a stadium in the country’s southeast, where relatives of the victims of stabbing deaths fired guns at two convicted men while thousands of people watched. The Taliban’s Supreme Court ruled that the two men were responsible for the stabbing deaths of two victims in separate attacks, according to a court statement. It identified the two as Syed Jamal from central Wardak province and Gul Khan from Ghazni — though it was unclear who carried out the stabbings, the two convicted men or others.

Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada last year ordered judges to fully implement all aspects of sharia -- including qisas punishment. GHAZNI: Two people were due to be publicly executed in a football stadium in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, provincial officials said, in the third and fourth death penalties carried out since the Taliban returned to power. The Ghazni province information and culture department said in a public notice that the execution was a qisas punishment -- equating to "an eye-for-an-eye" -- but did not initially provide details on the prisoners or their crimes.

A Christian persecution watchdog has issued a warning about the increasing severity of global persecution, revealing that 365 million Christians currently experience ongoing discrimination due to their faith. Open Doors published these findings in its annual assessment of countries where believers encounter the most extreme persecution and discrimination. Here are the top ten nations where Christians are most under threat.

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 has led to a surge in child marriage, as families struggle to cope with the economic and social upheaval. According to a recent report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), reported by the Independent newspaper, the number of child marriages in Afghanistan has increased by 25% since the Taliban took power.

Armita Geravand’s death comes after her being in a coma for weeks and threatens to reignite popular anger, protests over Iran’s mandatory headscarf law for women DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian teenage girl injured weeks ago in a mysterious incident on Tehran’s Metro while not wearing a headscarf has died, state media reported Saturday. The death of Armita Geravand comes after her being in a coma for weeks in Tehran and after the one-year anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini which sparked nationwide protests at the time.

CNN — Taliban fighters have committed hundreds of extrajudicial killings since taking power in Afghanistan in 2021, despite a “general amnesty” meant to protect the previous government, according to the United Nations. In a reported released Tuesday, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) counted at least 218 extrajudicial killings among more than 800 alleged offenses, including arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and ill-treatment and enforced disappearances. Former members of the Afghan National Army and police and National Directorate of Security officials were among those most targeted, and the majority of violations took place in the immediate months following the terror group’s takeover on August 15, 2021, the UNAMA said.

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 12 (ANI): Given that Pakistan has reneged on various international agreements that include those relating to good governance, human rights and labour rights, the European Union's (EU) 10-year preferential trade agreement, GSP Plus, may not be extended, according to the Insideover. As envisaged by the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) scheme, the country has also failed to bring about sustained development and poverty reduction in Pakistan.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers put a man to death in public on Tuesday in the eastern province of Laghman, the supreme court said, the second confirmed official execution since the Islamist movement took over in 2021. The man was convicted of the murder of five people after an investigation by three courts, the Taliban-run Supreme Court said in a statement, without saying how he was executed. The punishment was carried out in the presence of regional Taliban officials, it said, adding that the execution had been approved by the supreme spiritual leader, who told judges last year to carry out punishments in line with sharia law.

In May 2023, the de facto Deputy Chief Justice of Afghanistan announced that courts across the country had sentenced 175 individuals to Qisas (retribution in kind) punishments and 37 to stoning. Other sentences included physical punishments such as flogging and burying under a wall. The de facto Deputy Chief Justice did not specify a timeline for implementation of these sentences. The announcement was met with international condemnation, including from the United Nations experts who indicated that many of the punishments constitute torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment and are contrary to international law. Both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT), to which Afghanistan is a State party, prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.