Eleven Police Officers Sentenced to Imprisonment in Connection with the Murder of Farkhunda

A court in Afghanistan on Tuesday, May 18, sentenced eleven police officers to one year in prison each for failing to prevent the murder of Farkhunda, a young Afghan woman. According to AFP, Judge Safiullah Mujaddedi acquitted eight police officers in this case but told the other eleven that "you are sentenced to one year in prison for negligence in performing your duties." This ruling is not yet final, and the eleven police officers still have the right to appeal. The murder of 27-year-old Farkhunda was related to an accusation made by a talisman writer who claimed she had burned the Quran. This accusation arose after Farkhunda accused him of promoting superstitions. This led to Farkhunda being beaten to death by a mob of men who accused her of burning the Quran near the Shah Do Shamshira Mosque in central Kabul on Thursday, March 19, 2015, and then her body was set on fire. Some even drove over her corpse with vehicles. Mohammad Zahir, the senior criminal prosecutor of Afghanistan, announced at her funeral that the young woman had not burned the Quran and that the accusation against her was false. In connection with Farkhunda's murder, 49 people were arrested, including 19 police officers, and videos taken from the scene of the murder show that some police merely watched the violent scene. Previously, the Afghan judiciary sentenced four men to death in connection with this case and eight others to 16 years in prison each.