RASC News Agency: The Supreme Court of the Taliban group has announced that its lower court recently sentenced an individual to 25 lashes and six months in prison. According to the newsletter from the Taliban’s Supreme Court, “corporal punishment” (whipping) was publicly administered yesterday, on Apr 2, in the Charbolak district of Balkh province, against this man.
The newsletter mentioned that the individual was accused of touching an unrelated woman. Mohammad Gulab Farooqi, the chief prosecutor of the Taliban’s trial court in Balkh, stated that unlawful relations and touching an unrelated person are considered causes of adultery in Islam, an “immoral act,” and its perpetrator deserves punishment. The Taliban group has previously tried and publicly punished several individuals in various provinces of the country on charges of “illicit relations, adultery, and fleeing home.”
In the latest action by the Taliban’s Supreme Court, they also publicly whipped five individuals in Khost and Kandahar provinces yesterday. The public punishment of suspects by the Taliban has sparked widespread criticism, and human rights organizations have repeatedly urged this group to cease this form of punishment.
However, recently, Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban group, emphasized in an audio recording that this group will continue the public punishment of accused individuals and will publicly stone women.
