RASC News Agency: Sources have revealed that Mohammad Arif Hijran and Ahmad Kamran, two Afghanistani journalists detained by the Taliban on July 16th, have been sentenced to ten years in prison each. These journalists were arrested in the Khair Khana district of northern Kabul on July 16 and were swiftly sentenced the following day by a Taliban military court.
According to the sources, Hijran and Kamran were initially apprehended for covering and photographing the Ashura ceremony in the eleventh district of Kabul. Later, they were accused of reporting on the social and security conditions in Kabul and surrounding provinces. Mohammad Arif Hijran has an extensive history of working with various media outlets in Afghanistan and, over the past year, had been employed by Payam News Agency.
Reporters Without Borders, in its most recent annual index, ranked Afghanistan 178th out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom. The Taliban regime has been widely condemned as one of the most oppressive and dangerous in modern history, where citizens are stripped of basic freedoms and denied the right to engage in public activities. Despite these grim realities, several nations continue to back the Taliban, endorsing their extremist and radical policies. It is notable that some Western countries, particularly the United States, still provide financial support to the Taliban, reportedly delivering $40 million weekly to the regime.
