HRW urges new Afghan leadership to delay executions in rape case

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani to delay the execution of five men convicted in a badly flawed trial following the gang-rape of four women in Paghman district near Kabul.

The men, who were convicted of robbery and extramarital sex (zina), are scheduled to be executed today.

President Ghani should order an independent review of the handling of the case by the government, including the police and the prosecutor's office, Human Rights Watch said.

"President Ghani has called for a review of Afghan's justice system, but he has an immediate opportunity to stop a grave miscarriage of justice," said Phelim Kine, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.

"The horrendous due process violations in the Paghman trial have only worsened the injustices of this terrible crime," Kine added.

On August 23, a group of men in police uniforms, armed with assault rifles, stopped two cars in Paghman district outside Kabul, took money and jewellery from the passengers, and then raped four of the women passengers, one of whom was pregnant.

The case against the accused has been riddled with serious problems from the start, beginning with public statements from then-President Hamid Karzai's office urging speedy death sentences before the trial had taken place.

Numerous due process violations - including a manipulated lineup for identification, allegations of coerced confessions, the provision of mere days for the defense to prepare its case, and a cursory trial that included no real presentation of evidence - severely undermined the suspects' rights to a fair trial and a hearing by an independent court.

The court seemed determined to hand down the death penalty in the case, applying a law allowing a death sentence even though the penalty does not appear to apply in the case. Very few crimes are eligible for capital punishment under Afghan law.

International human rights treaties to which Afghanistan is a party only allow the death penalty for the most serious crimes when there is scrupulous adherence to fair trial standards. This case fell far short of those international standards.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently cruel and irreversible punishment. A majority of countries have abolished the practice.