Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has endorsed a penal code for Taliban courts consisting of 119 articles, which effectively authorizes the killing of armed opponents and sets out punishments for a wide range of alleged crimes. On January 7, the Taliban Supreme Court published the Penal Code of Courts, endorsed by Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the group’s leader. The document spans ten chapters, 119 articles, and 60 pages and was released in Pashto. The code took effect immediately upon issuance and covers a broad range of issues. Its provisions w…
Abbas Ebrahimzada, a prominent Afghan businessman and former deputy speaker of Afghanistan’s House of Representatives, has been imprisoned in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, for the past week. Ebrahimzada, who owns the Ibrahimzada Group of Companies, has invested over $50 million in Uzbekistan over the last four years. Sources close to Ebrahimzada told Independent Persian that he was arrested on Wednesday, September 24, following multiple complaints filed by Afghan “business rivals.” Despite posting a bail of $350,000 to the Tashkent…
On June 26, Danish police, in coordination with German authorities and with intelligence support from Mossad, arrested an Afghan-Danish man in Aarhus, a city in western Denmark. The man is accused of collecting photos, evidence, and detailed information about Israeli and Jewish sites across Europe—particularly in Germany—for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), specifically the Quds Force. He was transferred to Germany and is currently in custody there. German authorities have identified him only as "Ali S," and no offici…
During the recent 12-day war with Israel, Iranian security agencies announced, without providing any concrete evidence, at least five separate incidents involving the arrest of Afghan migrants—both individually and in groups—accused of being "Mossad agents." These arrests occurred primarily in Tehran and Mashhad. In three of these cases, Iranian authorities released videos of forced confessions recorded at police facilities. In two other cases, however—one involving 18 Afghan migrants allegedly preparing drones for operations near …
Since August 2021, restrictions on freedom of expression in Afghanistan have significantly increased. In this speech, delivered at the Dawit Isaak Library in Malmö, Sweden, on May 22, I discuss how recent policies have affected book publishing, cultural production, and access to information in the country. Good afternoon, everyone, Let me begin with a simple but heartfelt thank you. Since the withdrawal of American and NATO forces from Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban to power, my country has largely disappeared from international he…
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