The Taliban have publicly flogged 17 people, giving them up to 35 lashes each in a barbaric display of medieval punishment. The hardline rulers of Afghanistan meted out the draconian sentences to a group of individuals convicted of alcohol and drug offences under the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law.
In a statement, the Taliban’s Supreme Court in the capital Kabul said it passed the sentences of corporal punishment and imprisonment following a hearing at the Kabul Provincial Narcotics and Intoxicants Prevention Primary Court.
The judicial body said: “17 people were sentenced to prison…for the crimes of selling and smuggling narcotics tablets…alcoholic beverages, and hashish. The initial court sentenced the criminals to seven months to three years and six months of mandatory imprisonment and 15 to 35 lashes.
“This decision was implemented after the Supreme Court confirmed the verdict.”
News site Kabul Now reports public floggings and other corporal punishments have become increasingly common under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Hundreds of ordinary citizens, men, women and children, have been subjected to brutal lashings after being accused of committing adultery or theft. People have also been targeted for what the Islamic extremist regime calls the “immoral crime” of being homosexual.
A United Nations report last year said a 12-year-old boy and a man were flogged in public for the crime of immorality. On the same day, in Balkh province in the North-west, a woman and a man convicted of running away from home and adultery were publicly flogged 35 times.
The UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) recorded 234 public floggings in just three months this year, with June alone seeing more than 80 people whipped in several different provinces.
A UN spokesman said: “The de facto authorities… continue to implement judicial corporal punishment in public,” adding that it constitutes a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which is prohibited under international human rights law. Corporal punishment must cease, he said.
“More generally, we call on the de facto authorities to ensure full respect for due process and fair trial rights, in particular access to legal representation, for anyone confronted with criminal charges,” the spokesperson said.
It comes after an Indonesian woman was whipped with a cane in Aceh province in front of members of the public for breaking Sharia Law.
