Afghanistan
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 7
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · Afghan law does not prohibit the execution of an individual...
- News items in the archive
- 560
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Afghanistan is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 7 the year before. The archive holds 560 news items on Afghanistan, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- FEBRUARY 18, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
An Afghan national - named Jabbar Tajik, son of Jamal...
An Afghan national - named Jabbar Tajik, son of Jamal - was hanged in Amol for breaking into a house and raping a woman
- FEBRUARY 7, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
In northern Afghanistan, members of the Hazara ethnic...
In northern Afghanistan, members of the Hazara ethnic group called for an international investigation into crimes committed by the Taliban
- JANUARY 24, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Criminals in Afghanistan will continue to be punished...
Criminals in Afghanistan will continue to be punished with amputations and stonings under Islamic Sharia law as part of the interim government's efforts to crack down on crime, Chief Justice Fazul Hadi Shinwari said
- JANUARY 24, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The governor of the southern Afghan province of Kandahar,...
The governor of the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, Gul Agha, called a mass meeting at the site of Taliban executions to pledge loyalty to Kabul
- JANUARY 18, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
David Hicks, a 26-year-old Autralian captured fighting...
David Hicks, a 26-year-old Autralian captured fighting with al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan in December 2001, has been transferred to a US marine base at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay
- JANUARY 18, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
There has been speculation - it is nothing more - that...
There has been speculation - it is nothing more - that David Hicks, the Australian captured in battle against the Taliban and al-Qa'ida, could be condemned to death by US military tribunal
- JANUARY 16, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The growing diplomatic row over the al-Qaeda prisoners...
The growing diplomatic row over the al-Qaeda prisoners being held in Cuba intensified as the United Nations demanded that the detainees' human rights were respected
- JANUARY 15, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
UK Home Secretary Jack Straw warned US authorities...
UK Home Secretary Jack Straw warned US authorities not to execute British citizens suspected of fighting for Osama bin Laden
- JANUARY 15, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, said the transfer...
Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, said the transfer of British nationals suspected of fighting with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan to Cuba was legal but they had to be treated "with proper respect for international law
- JANUARY 14, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Three British al-Qaeda fighters are facing the death penalty
Three British al-Qaeda fighters are facing the death penalty
- JANUARY 13, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Afghanistan's newly appointed chief justice said that...
Afghanistan's newly appointed chief justice said that he would give the death sentence to Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar if they were brought to his court
- JANUARY 12, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Afghanistan's chief justice says the divine law has...
Afghanistan's chief justice says the divine law has to be applied if proof of a crime is furnished
- JANUARY 1, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Afghanistan has an interim administration which was...
Afghanistan has an interim administration which was inaugurated on 22 December 2001 and which is due to govern for six months
- JANUARY 1, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The Taliban staged so many public executions during...
The Taliban staged so many public executions during their five years in power that Supreme Court Judge Zalmai Payeda lost count
- DECEMBER 23, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human...
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Kamal Hossain, expressed concern over the death and summary execution of prisoners in Afghanistan
- DECEMBER 22, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Afghanistan has an interim administration which was...
Afghanistan has an interim administration which was inaugurated on 22 December 2001 and which is due to govern for six months
- DECEMBER 21, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Kenton Keith, a spokesman for the US-led coalition...
Kenton Keith, a spokesman for the US-led coalition in Aghanistan said Washington would seek bin Laden's extradition if he was found in Afghanistan, Pakistan or elsewhere
- DECEMBER 21, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
John Walker, the American Taleban fighter, admitted...
John Walker, the American Taleban fighter, admitted that he joined Arab mercenaries financed by Osama bin Laden and attended a training camp run by the al-Qaeda leader
- DECEMBER 16, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Gul Agha Shirzai, the new governor of Kandahar, according...
Gul Agha Shirzai, the new governor of Kandahar, according to multiple accounts, ordered the summary execution of foreign-born Taliban soldiers captured in the last month
- DECEMBER 14, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The Taliban staged so many public executions during...
The Taliban staged so many public executions during their five years in power that Supreme Court Judge Zalmai Payeda lost count
- DECEMBER 12, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Spectral but alive, more than a thousand prisoners...
Spectral but alive, more than a thousand prisoners of the Taliban emerged from a Kandahar jail with tales of torture, starvation and executions inflicted by guards who have since been allowed to join the new administration
- DECEMBER 9, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Osama bin Laden would be handed to the Americans if...
Osama bin Laden would be handed to the Americans if he was captured alive in Afghanistan, Downing Street revealed
- DECEMBER 7, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Nine men who lived in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan...
Nine men who lived in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have been convicted at the Old Bailey [London's main criminal court] of hijacking a jet and flying it to Stansted airport
- DECEMBER 6, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The last victim of the Taliban was Abdullah, 28, from...
The last victim of the Taliban was Abdullah, 28, from Kandahar, a poet who became a soldier and a father of three
- DECEMBER 4, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The UN Third Committee concluded session by approving...
The UN Third Committee concluded session by approving draft resolutions on human rights in Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo
- DECEMBER 2, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The 16 Afghan employees of Shelter Now International...
The 16 Afghan employees of Shelter Now International [arrested with the eight Western aid-workers] were freed when the Northern Alliance forces entered Kabul
- DECEMBER 2, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The man hanged as an alleged American spy in Martyrs'...
The man hanged as an alleged American spy in Martyrs' Square in Kandahar, with a satellite phone strung to his corpse, was a senior aide of Mullah Khakser, the former intelligence minister who since his recent defection has revealed how Osama bin Laden ba
- DECEMBER 1, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
United Nations High Commission for Human Rights Mary...
United Nations High Commission for Human Rights Mary Robertson said that she wants an inquiry in to the killings of Taliban prisoners at a fort in Afghanistan amid allegations that some of the men were shot execution style
- DECEMBER 1, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
ARD [the Pakistani Alliance for Restoration of Democracy]...
ARD [the Pakistani Alliance for Restoration of Democracy] chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, urged the UN human rights organizations to immediately launch a probe into the massacre of hundreds of prisoners of war by the Northern Alliance
- NOVEMBER 30, 2001AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The Taliban publicly hanged a man suspected of spying...
The Taliban publicly hanged a man suspected of spying for the US in Kandahar and tied a satellite phone to his corpse, according to witnesses quoted by the Afghan Islamic Press