Justice was speedily handed down in a rape case that lasted two and a half hours. But due process was sacrificed in the trial to appease public anger.
August 22 will go down as a night without honour in Afghanistan. Women members of four families returning from a wedding celebration were sexually assaulted, and robbed in Paghman.
One day later security forces arrested three men who they said were among the assailants. The bestiality of the attack, which shattered years of calm that enabled women to travel without fear, sparked calls for their immediate execution on social media.
Kabul Police chief General Mohammad Zaher Zaher announced that one of those arrested, who was the leader of the gang, had recently been released from prison.
Days later the arrests went up to seven with the police saying that 10 men were involved. Three were still absconding on Sep 10. Basir Azizi, the spokesperson at the Attorney General’s office in Kabul said the seven men had confessed to their crime.
The case was heard in the Kabul primary court. While five of the seven men were found guilty of rape, the death sentences were awarded to all for armed robbery. Safiaullah Mujadedi, the judge, said the convicted men have the right to appeal.
Public protests
The robbery and rape in Paghman was brazenly executed. The four families were on their way back home from a henna ceremony, a pre-wedding ritual when henna is applied on the bride and bridegroom. The robbers who wore police uniform stopped the vehicles on the pretext of conducting a search. The vehicles were taken into a garden where the men and women were separated from each other. The passengers were beaten, and robbed. The women were also raped.
The incident sparked spontaneous demonstrations across the country.
People in Kabul gathered in every locality to protest. The demand that the culprits should be executed echoed everywhere. Many women and girls came out in public in Jaghoori district, Ghazni province, urging the government to take serious note of the incident. People in Badakhshan, Bamyan and Herat also held demonstrations and requested the culprits be hanged for the crime.
Social media including Facebook was flooded with demands for justice for the rape survivors.
The women have not come out in public to file complaints against the assailants. Whether or not their silence is out of personal trauma or because of fear of social ostracism is not clear.
According to information released by the Rabiya Balkhi Women’s Hospital, the women who were brought to the hospital with serious injuries were treated. There were rumours that one of the survivors, a girl, had died in the hospital but this was later denied. Hospital doctors disclosed the survivors were between the ages of 18 and 35, and one of them was also pregnant. They were brutally assaulted, particularly the youngest survivor, the hospital declared.
Accused confess
The two lawyers representing the accused said in the men’s defence that they had surrendered to lust because of illiteracy, poverty, joblessness and the uncertain political situation. They said their clients were truly remorseful, and pleaded with the court that they be treated with compassion.
The lawyers have protested the infringement of the rights of their clients by security agencies during the arrests and investigations: the right to privacy, and to remain unidentified until their crimes were proven.
Attorney General Hamidullah Qaser has accused the men of sexually assaulting four women in a garden. They raped and beat the victims, stole their money, watches, mobile phones and jewellry.
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