TAKHAR (Amu tv): Taliban flogged 11 people, including four women, in northeastern Takhar Province on charges of adultery and theft, according to their Supreme Court.
The court said in a statement that the individuals were each whipped 39 times in public in the districts of Yangi Qala and Khwaja Bahauddin. They were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from four months to three years.
Taliban said the punishments were carried out after approval from their Supreme Court.
The floggings are the latest in a series of corporal punishments carried out by the Taliban in recent months. Last week, Taliban’s supreme court confirmed that 18 people — 16 men and two women — were flogged in Kabul, Laghman and Balkh Provinces on charges including extramarital relations and drug trafficking.
According to Richard Bennett, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, 672 people have been flogged by the Taliban across the country so far this year.
The United Nations and other rights organizations have repeatedly urged the Taliban to halt such punishments, calling them violations of international human rights standards. Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan with similar practices in the 1990s, say the punishments are consistent with their interpretation of Islamic law.
