Afghan Taliban: Haqqani’s brother sentenced to death

Anas Haqqani was arrested by US security officials in 2014

ISLAMABAD: A local court in Afghanistan is said to have awarded death penalty to a brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, deputy chief of the Afghan Taliban.

A section of the media quoted Baseer Aziz, the spokesperson for the office of the attorney general, as saying that a primary court has awarded death sentence to Anas Haqqani, who was captured by US security officials after he visited Qatar in October 2014, along with another leader Hafiz Rashid. They were arrested in Bahrain, Taliban had confirmed at the time.

The spokesperson would not say when and where the court sentenced Anas and on what charges. There was no official word on the matter, while the US-funded Radio Azadi also reported on the authority of ‘credible sources’ that a court has awarded death sentence to Anas Haqqani.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he was trying to verify the report. "We have started investigation into the matter,” Mujahid told The Express Tribune when approached on WhatsApp.

Nunn.asia, a website which mainly reports on the Afghan Taliban said Anas has been condemned to death under “pressure from the government's circles”.

The Taliban had confirmed the detention of Anas and Rashid and said they had travelled to Qatar to meet the Taliban leaders who were freed from the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

The US later handed over Anas and another senior Taliban commander to Afghan authorities, while the Afghan government had claimed that Anas was arrested in eastern Khost province.

Afghan legal experts say the convicts have the right to appeal in the superior judiciary.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2016.