Afghanistan dispatches: ‘the Taliban are looking to hire judges and prosecutors’ Dispatches
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Afghanistan dispatches: ‘the Taliban are looking to hire judges and prosecutors’

JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Here, a lawyer in Kabul offers his observations and perspective on the threat posed to Afghanistan’s legal system and legal community by the prospect of Taliban legal appointments. For privacy and security reasons we are withholding our correspondent’s name and institutional affiliation. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.

A friend of mine who is a licensed lawyer informed me that the Taliban are looking to hire judges and prosecutors. They have already appointed prosecutors in some places. Our concern is that these judges and prosecutors do not have higher education and most of them studied Sharia law. This helps with the harsh implementation of the Islamic rules and regulations.

Another concern that I have is that defense lawyers’ details will be in the hand of such judges and prosecutors. Before court proceedings lawyers would traditionally provide the court with a  copy of our national identity card, a photo, a legalized power of attorney which again contained our details, phone numbers, and details of the company where we used to work. If the Taliban have access to these documents, it will be easy to identify lawyers who defended foreigners in the courts.

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