Ghani reopens case of Kabul mob lynching woman
Print Edition
THE Afghan president has ordered his government to reopen the case of a woman beaten to death last year by a frenzied mob outside a Kabul shrine, just days after the country’s highest court reduced the sentences of the 13 men convicted of her murder.
Ashraf Ghani’s move comes ahead of the first anniversary of Farkhunda Malikzada’s killing and as a leading international rights group issued a report slamming Afghanistan’s judicial system over its failure to deliver justice in the high-profile case.
In its statement, Human Rights Watch called it a “bitter irony” that the Supreme Court in Kabul had confirmed the reduced sentences on March 8, the International Women’s Day.
The 27-year-old Malikzada was attacked and lynched on March 19 last year outside a shrine in the Afghan capital after one of the men in the group shouted that she had burned a Quran, the Muslim holy book — an accusation that was later found to be false. The brutal slaying stunned the country and led to calls for reform of the judicial system, long plagued by corruption, partisanship and incompetence, and stronger protection for women from violence.
A spokesman for Ghani, Zafar Hashemi, said the newly appointed attorney general had been instructed by the president to “make justice for Farkhunda his top priority and reopen the case.”
“The president has assigned a senior and dedicated adviser from his legal team to follow up and provide support to Farkhunda’s family lawyers,” Hashemi said. “He asks for regular reporting on her case and puts significant pressure on law enforcement authorities to make sure that justice is delivered.”
Four men were originally sentenced to death for Malikzada’s murder and another nine were handed long prison sentences. However, the Supreme Court this week upheld a lower court’s decision to reduce the sentences for all convicted.
Footage taken on cell phones of the attack showed Malikzada being punched, kicked and beaten with wooden planks, after which the crowd threw her from a roof, ran over her with a car and crushed her with a block of concrete. They then set her body ablaze on the bank of the Kabul River.
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