(Charikar) Twenty-seven people were whipped in front of a crowd on Thursday in Afghanistan, the day after the first public execution ordered since the return to power of the Taliban regime which described international criticism as “interference”.
Thursday, in Charikar, capital of the province of Parwan (Western Afghanistan), “27 criminals, including 18 men and 9 women, were whipped by order of the Sharia courts (Islamic law) of the said province”, explains the Supreme Court in a statement.
The reasons mentioned for this punishment are among others: sodomy, adultery, false testimony, debauchery, flight from the marital home or theft as well as the sale and possession of drugs.
“Each of these criminals confessed to their crimes in court without resorting to force and were satisfied with the punishment given by the court,” the same source said.
A witness told AFP that more than a thousand people attended the flogging organized in a stadium in the city. “The audience was chanting ‘Allah Akbar’ and ‘we want God’s law to be enforced on our soil’,” he said.
“Those whipped received 20 to 39 cane strokes from a team of Taliban who changed places as they got tired.” “Most of the men were writhing, while the women cried out in pain,” according to this witness.
On Wednesday, for the first time since their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban executed a man accused of murder in front of several hundred people in Farah (West).
The condemned man was killed by three bullets fired by the father of his victim, under the law of retaliation.
This sentence was strongly criticized in particular by the United States and France.
Washington called it “odious” and lamented that the Taliban are not keeping their promises to the rest of the world.
“This shows, in our view, that the Taliban are seeking to return to their backward and violent practices of the 1990s,” said US State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Under the first Taliban regime (1996-2001), the Taliban publicly punished perpetrators of theft, kidnapping or adultery, with penalties such as amputation of a limb and stoning.
“France condemns in the strongest terms the public execution carried out today by the Taliban in Afghanistan”, had for its part reacted the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called the reactions “interference”.
The fact that Afghanistan is criticized “shows that certain countries and organizations” have “a problem with Islam and do not respect the beliefs and laws of Muslims”, he denounced in a press release.
Upon their return to power, the Taliban had promised to be more flexible in the application of Sharia, but they have largely returned to the ultra-rigorous interpretation of Islam which had marked their first passage to power.
In mid-November, Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered judges to enforce all aspects of Islamic law, including public executions, stonings and floggings, and amputation of limbs for thieves.