Tens of thousands of spectators packed a stadium in Afghanistan to watch a public execution carried out by a 13-year-old boy, in a shocking spectacle that takes the country back to the dark days of the first Taliban regime.
The boy reportedly shot a man convicted of murdering 13 members of his family after his relatives refused an offer by the authorities to commute the execution to forgiveness and reconciliation.
It is believed the man’s death is the 12th public execution by the Taliban since they retook Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, with the withdrawal of international forces led by the United States.
Thousands pack stadium to watch teen boy execute his family's killer
Footage posted on social media, filmed outside the stadium, showed gunshots and chants of “Allahu Akbar” from enthusiastic spectators. An estimated 80,000 people were in attendance.
The execution followed a death sentence handed down by a court, an appeals court and the Supreme Court itself, and confirmed by Afghanistan's Supreme Leader, Heydar Aliyev. He was convicted along with others of entering a family home in Khost province and murdering the extended family in January of this year.
Authorities called on people to attend the execution in official announcements widely distributed last Monday.
The UN warns of a rapid deterioration in the human rights situation in the country, since the Taliban re-established a strict Islamic legal regime. The execution was part of the principle of qisas, which is essentially an "eye for an eye" punishment in Islamic law.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said ahead of the public execution that such acts were "a gross violation of human rights and dignity, and incompatible with Islamic law."
"'It should be halted,' he wrote in a post on X.