Afghan court rejects UN condemnation of executions

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Supreme Court rejected on Saturday condemnation by the United Nations of the Taliban’s use of capital punishment, a day after four convicted murderers were publicly executed.

The executions at sports stadiums in front of large crowds in three provinces on Friday brought to 10 the number of men put to death since the Taliban swept back to power in Afghanistan in 2021, according to an AFP tally.

Law and order is central to the severe ideology of the Taliban and public executions were common during their first rule from 1996 to 2001.

Supreme Court spokesman Abdul Rahim Rashid said “retribution” had been carried out “based on the clear and apparent orders of Sharia (Islamic law), reliable witnesses, and confessions by the murderers”.

He rejected the UN human rights office’s condemnation of the executions as “fundamentally irreconcilable with human dignity and the right to life,” calling the statement “unfair and surprising”.

He said the executed men had “destroyed innocent lives” and that their deaths were required by “our religion, our sharia system and the demand of our public”.