Taliban lash nine people convicted of having extramarital affairs in Afghanistan

Dec. 24 (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least nine people, including a woman, have been whipped this Saturday in the Afghan region of Jost (east) after being convicted by courts set up by the Taliban for allegedly having relationships outside of marriage.

According to information collected by the Afghan newspaper ‘Hasht e Subh’, all of them received the lashes in the city of Jost, capital of the province, after the court confirmed the sentences against them.

For now, no details have been released about how many lashes the convicted have received, although the Taliban routinely give 30 to those accused of having relationships outside of marriage.

The Taliban leader, Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada, recently ordered Afghan judges to fully apply ‘sharia’ — or Islamic law — against those who commit a series of crimes that could be punished even with public amputations or stoning for crimes such as robbery, kidnapping or sedition.

The United Nations Office for Human Rights declared at the end of November “dismayed” by reports about the use of lashes as public punishment by the Taliban, to which the group responded that criticism of these sentences constitutes a “insult to islam”.