2 Men Sentenced to Die in Afghanistan

An Afghan court has sentenced two men to death and a third to 20 years in prison for the murder of an Afghan businessman and the kidnapping of an Italian aid worker.

The three men sentenced by the National Security Court were implicated in the abduction of CARE International worker Clementina Cantoni. Armed men kidnapped Cantoni, who’d been working on a project helping Afghan widows and their families, in Kabul on May 16 and released her unharmed June 9.

The court’s president, Abdul Baset Bakhtyari, said Temur Shah and Haroom, who goes by one name, were sentenced to death by hanging after a one-day trial.

A third man, known only as Esat, received 20 years in prison, Bakhtyari said.

He said the men would appeal.

Bakhtyari said Shah and Haroom were also accused of kidnapping businessman Hafid Ullah Zadan earlier this year and demanding a $500,000 ransom. When the abductors failed to receive payment, Shah drowned Zadan in a well, Bakhtyari said.

He said Shah had confessed to both crimes.

Meanwhile, an Afghan journalists association and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists hailed the imminent release of editor Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, convicted of blasphemy in October over articles in his magazine Haqooq-i-Zan, or Women’s Rights.

One article had criticized a provision under Sharia, or Islamic law, for punishing adulterers with 100 lashes.

An appeals court Wednesday reduced Nasab’s sentence to six months and suspended the remaining three months after he apologized for the articles, said Maulvi Muhayuddin Baluch, an advisor to President Hamid Karzai.