Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai signed a decree...

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai signed a decree permitting the death penalty for those convicted of child smuggling to use the victim's body parts.
The eight-article decree was signed before Karzai left for a brief trip to the United States in response to growing concerns about the issue.
All of the articles related to the abduction of children and the decree stated that the judiciary must hold public hearings into any cases of child kidnapping, trafficking or hostage taking.
According to one of the articles, if the kidnapper's crime results in the disabling or death of the child through loss of body organs "then the perpetrator will be given the severest of possible punishments contained within the law", presidential spokesman Jawad Ludin said.
"If the act leads to the death of the child kidnapped the crime will be treated as premeditated murder," he added.
The death penalty is allowable under Afghanistan's legal systems but all executions must be approved individually by the president. Ludin said the new decree, which came into effect immediately, did not indicate an increase in the number of incidents of child trafficking for the use of body parts but was designed to close a gap in existing legislation.