AFGHANISTAN: PUBLIC EXECUTIONS IN KABUL

Afghanistan´s ruling Taliban movement publicly hanged the four men convicted of setting off bombs in the capital and strung their bodies from cranes and a traffic tower in Kabul.
"They are the enemies of Islam and Afghanistan. Hanging of the bodies should become a good lesson for others," a Taliban fighter told a Reuters journalist at the scene.
The bodies of the four men, who were thought to be in their late 20s, were strung up near the presidential palace, the site where the hardline Islamist group executed former Soviet-backed president Najibullah after sweeping to power in 1996. Hundreds of people gathered with heavily armed Taliban fighters to watch the execution.
They had been sentenced to death the previous day for masterminding a number of bomb blasts in the Afghan capital Kabul in November 2000, Afghan Taleban radio said. Gulaf Khan, Aidi Mohammad, Mohammad Tahir, and Ebadollah son of Habiblloh were condemned for being the main executors of the terrorist act.
The radio said the "mercenaries and puppets" were acting on the orders "of their foreign masters" and were seeking to "undermine security in Kabul and inspire fear among the people".
Taleban supreme leader Amir ol-Momenin handed down the sentences in line with shari´ah laws."Tomorrow... these criminals are to be executed at the Ariana crossroads in Kabul. The nine other criminals were sentenced to life imprisonment and will serve their terms in the central prison of Kabul Province," the radio said.

Hands Off Cain will be organising a demonstration of protest on Friday 10th August at 5p.m. in front of the Belgian Embassy in Rome at Via Dei Monti Parioli, 49, to demand that Belgium, temporarily presiding the EU, intervene in the release of the 24 Christian aid workers who risk the death penalty at the hands of the Taliban and that the EU present a moratorium on executions at the next UN General Assembly.