HRW wants Afghan soldier’s death penalty commuted

KABUL): The Human Rights Watch is urging the Afghan government to commute the death penalty awarded to an Afghan soldier convicted of killing four soldiers last January.

“The death penalty is an act of cruelty that should not be imposed even in a heinous crime like this. President Hamid Karzai should commute the death sentence in this and all other cases in Afghanistan,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

On Tuesday, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense announced the soldier, Abdul Saboor, was convicted of the killings by a military court and sentenced him to death by hanging.

His crime was killing four French soldiers and wounding 15 others in central Kapisa province.

Since France has abolished the death penalty and as a member of the European Union campaigns for its abolition globally, the French government should make a formal request to the Afghan government to commute the sentence, said Adams.

“The French government abolished the death penalty in 1981. France should embrace the same principles in this case despite of the tragic loss of four soldiers as it demonstrates within France by urging President Karzai to commute Saboor’s sentence,” added Adams 

The Kapisa shooting was one of a growing number of cases of Afghan soldiers killing international troops deployed alongside them in the so-called “green on blue” incidents.

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