- While the Taliban was rebuilding the court system, Afghanistan’s judicial system was in trouble.
- Few prisoners have the opportunity to see the judge.
- The Taliban are studying a version of Islamic law.
A small carpeted room is a temporary prison for 12 “criminals” awaiting the Taliban’s trial. They are trapped in the legal system at the core of the new Afghan regime being established by Islamists.
None of the prisoners at the bottom of the Taliban headquarters in the Panjwai district of southern Afghanistan have seen a local judge. He is busy in another area.
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Before his arrival, the Taliban fighters of the unit in Kandahar province-by their own whim and understanding of the organization’s interpretation of Islamic law-represented the entire judicial system.
Haj Baran, a 41-year-old businessman who was arrested for debts three days ago, said: “They will let me stay here until I can repay the money I owe.”
A guard observed carefully and said:
We have a good trial system that complies with the Islamic Sharia law of the Taliban.
After nearly 20 years of rebellion, the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan by force in August.
But Adam Bazco, a researcher who conducted fieldwork on the Taliban justice system from 2010 to 2016, said that they put their version of justice at the center of their ideology long ago and “makes the court a conquering The means of power”.
Strive to achieve a system
Beginning in 2004, in areas controlled by the Taliban, “people began to turn to them because they were increasingly dissatisfied with Western groups interfering in their land disputes and the increasing corruption and nepotism of the judicial system,” Bazko said.
He explained that in the context of the war, the severe punishment of the Taliban was welcomed by some people.
They are known for sternness—but also for fairness, speed, and predictability.
However, three months after the Taliban seized power, they are still working to implement the system across the country.
At the nearby Kandahar Central Prison, Deputy Director Mansur Mullavi brandished a cable as a whip, showing off the foul barracks.
He said that one building was home to 1,000 drug addicts who had been forced to detox. There are still 200 “criminals” also being held there.
“It’s best to be determined by Sharia law,” said Mullavi, who once managed the Taliban’s secret prison in the area. Under the previously ineffective and often corrupt system, “they don’t know.”
Sitting cross-legged in the prison yard, Mohammad Naeem is one of the people waiting for the sentence.
Two months ago, he was arrested at home with his wife and a 14-year-old girl. He said he wanted to get married.
“The girl agreed, but the parents disagreed,” the 35-year-old said, explaining that his parents called the Taliban to complain about the sexual assault.
Naeem says:
But I didn’t touch the girl, they can do tests and inspections.
Notorious case
If he is found guilty of extramarital sexual relations, he may be stoned to death.
“I just want to be tried under Sharia law because I did nothing wrong,” he said.
In some cases, since the takeover, Taliban judges-fearing loss of support-have tried to avoid being too harsh.
Bazko recalled a notorious case of the former Taliban regime in the 1990s, when one of the walls was pushed onto a man convicted of sodomy, resulting in his death.
Now, he said, such cases “do not represent daily life under Taliban justice.”
On the contrary, the Afghan hosts say they are seeking international respect.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said three minutes later: “If someone kills a person on their own, even if it is one of ours, it is a crime. We will take him to court and he will not Don’t face the law.” Recently, Taliban militants killed guests during a music dispute at a wedding.
However, the new government has recovered some of the most frightening deterrence tools from its first regime-such as the terrible religious police, and the Ministry of Promoting Virtue and Suppressing Crime.
The Taliban also continued to impose violent punishments.
Officials said that on September 25, in the western city of Herat, they suspended the bodies of four men accused of kidnapping from a crane in order to “learn” others.
Bazko said the Taliban oscillates between “their moral vision that they can go to the worst extreme” and “willingness to make promises, show off a well-functioning bureaucracy and an understanding of norms, including on human rights issues.”
He said that they are discussing these things at all — even if there is still a huge gap between words and deeds — this is the “biggest evolution of the movement” since their predecessor regime.
Pul-e-Charkhi, Kabul’s largest prison, was mostly empty because Islamists released tens of thousands of criminals in the final hours of the battle to overthrow the US-backed government.
Now, Taliban official Asadullah Shahnan is preparing to reopen the facility.
Shahnan himself spent six years in Pul-e-Charkhi, and the previous government continued to execute the death penalty.
He remembered that on the execution day, the prisoner was taken to the window and forced to watch.
“We won’t do that,” he said.
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