AFGHANISTAN. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR KILLING OF JOURNALISTS

Afghanistan's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence handed to Reza Khan for his involvement in the death of four journalists in 2001. The court maintained the decision of capital punishment awarded to Reza, 29, by a Kabul primary court and an appeals court.
Supreme Court member and senior judge Mohammad Azim Jalili said Reza, along with his accomplices, had killed Maria Grazia Cutuli of Italy, Australian television cameraman Harry Burton, Spanish journalist Julio Fuentes of El Mundo and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari of Reuters in November 2001. Reza was also charged with raping an Italian journalist. The journalists were stopped at Tangi Abrishum, about 90 km (55 miles) east of Kabul when they were on the way to the capital just after the fall of the Taliban regime.
In October 2005, two brothers and accomplices of Reza, Mahmood Zar Jan and Abdul Wahid were also sentenced to death in the first instance. Prosecutor Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Abbasi said Reza had confessed to both the cases of murder and rape. He was also accused of killing his wife, Qandi Gul, and cutting his daughter's hand.