Afghanistan hangs five men over gang rape

Afghanistan hanged five men on Wednesday over a gang rape that had shocked the country, officials said, despite requests from human rights groups for new President Ashraf Ghani to stay the executions to address concerns about the handling of the case. A gang rape by armed men is rare in Kabul, the capital, and the case tapped into a vein of anxiety as foreign troops leave the country while a badly stretched Afghan army and police fight a deadly Taliban insurgency. The case had been held up as a test of Ghani’s resolve to reform a justice system often accused of lapses of due process.

The trials have been marred by inconsistencies, uninvestigated torture claims and political interference.

David Griffiths, Asia-Pacific deputy director of rights group Amnesty International

In August, eight men, some dressed in police uniforms, stopped an Afghan family’s car outside Kabul and sexually assaulted four of the women in the family, including one who was pregnant. They were dragged out of the vehicle into an area where their male family members could hear the women screaming. The case prompted street demonstrations in support of the victims. While allowed under Afghan law, the death penalty was applied only on two occasions during Karzai’s 13-year presidency. He did not authorise the death penalty in hundreds of cases when it was sought during his tenure. Human rights groups criticised both the speedy legal process and application of the death penalty in the rape case.

In allowing the executions to go forward, Mr. Ghani signaled support not for reform and the rule of law but for business as usual in the courts.

Patricia Gossman, an Afghanistan expert at Human Rights Watch

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