Taliban authorities shot and killed a man convicted of murder three times in a stadium in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the sixth public execution since their return to power in 2021, according to an AFP tally.
The man was shot in the morning in the football stadium of Allez, the capital of the province of Paktia, filled with thousands of people who came to witness this execution, noted an AFP journalist.
The day before, the governorate had called on social networks for residents to “participate in the event”. Several ministers and provincial officials were present in the stadium.
The execution order was signed by the supreme leader of the Taliban, Emir Hibatullah Akhundzada, who lives secluded in his southern stronghold of Kandahar and governs the country by decree or instructions, the Supreme Court said in a statement.
Courts of different jurisdictions had previously examined the case “very carefully and on several occasions”, the Court clarified.
| © AFP Afghans going to the Garde stadium in the Paktia region to witness the execution of a man, November 13, 2024 |
The victim's family was consulted to find out if they would forgive the condemned man. In view of his refusal, the execution was ordered under the Islamic principle of “qisas” or law of retaliation, from the same source.
A weapon was then given in the stadium to a male member of this family who shot the condemned man three times.
The latter was found guilty of the murder, perpetrated before the Taliban authorities took power.
In February, three men were executed in the same week, two in Ghazni in the east, and one in Sheberghan in the north. Before that, a man was shot in December 2022 and a second in June 2023. All were convicted of “murder”.
“Until death”
Public executions were common during the first Taliban regime, between 1996 and 2001. The condemned were most often killed by shooting or stoning, depending on the crimes charged.
| © AFP Afghans gathering at the Garde football stadium in the Paktia region to watch the execution of a man, November 13, 2024 |
One of the most striking images of their first regime remains that in 1999 of the execution of a woman wearing a burqa in a large stadium in Kabul, in front of thousands of spectators. She had been convicted of killing her husband.
Since August 2021, authorities have regularly carried out public floggings for other crimes, such as theft, adultery or alcohol consumption.
Emir Hibatullah Akhundzada affirmed in August, on the third anniversary of the capture of Kabul, that the application of Islamic law was “a responsibility until death”.
Shortly after, the authorities announced a new law for the “propagation of virtue and the repression of vice” governing all aspects of the social and private lives of Afghans according to an ultra-rigorous interpretation of Islamic law.
These gray areas, considered worrying by human rights defenders, had sparked an outcry from the international community, which still does not recognize Taliban power.
The UN, for its part, accuses the authorities of having established a “gender apartheid” in the country of 45 million inhabitants, one of the poorest in the world, with anemic growth, massive unemployment and serious humanitarian crisis.
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