By Shadi Khan Saif
KABUL, Afghanistan
Afghan authorities have executed five gang-rape convicts in Kabul on Wednesday.
Kabul Police Chief Gen. Zahir Zahir confirmed the men had been executed in the Pul-i-Charki prison in the east of the capital this afternoon. The execution was completed behind closed doors in a fortified prison despite popular demand for a public execution.
Afghanistan’s Attorney General Office announced the execution date on Tuesday. The men were found guilty of a brutal gang-rape in the northern Paghman district of Kabul on August 22.
Human rights organizations protested the execution. They labeled the trial as unfair, with "too brief and too partial" court proceedings. The Helsinki-based Human Rights Watch has stated that the prosecution and the trial violated procedure and that the accused were convicted despite a lack of evidence. Amnesty International, too, had called for the executions to be stopped, claiming that there was political interference in the trial.
Afghan authorities, however, were reluctant to appear to show any sympathy for the culprits.
A stay of execution was formally demanded of the new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai. But, it seems, he too, despite his liberal approach to many issues, prefered to avoid going against public sentiment by pardoning or at least delaying the execution.
On September 7, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai approved the death penalty for five of the seven criminals convicted of rape and kidnapping in the Paghman case.
Three suspects of this case remain at-large, though law enforcement officials assure that they are doing their best to track them down.
"Efforts are underway to arrest the culprits, but one of them has fled outside Afghanistan and we are trying to bring him back to the country," Kabul Police Chief Gen. Zahir Zahir said.
The case received so much national attention because of the horrific nature of the crime that was committed. The gang of men stopped four cars on Qargha-Paghman road during the night of August 22. They robbed the occupants, beat up the men and kidnapped four women who were repeatedly gang-raped.
In addition to the five Paghman rapists, notorious gangster Habib Estalif was also executed on Wednesday.
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