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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Afghans Get Death in U.N. Worker Slaying |
| 2004-02-11 |
| A Kabul court convicted two Afghans for the murder of a French U.N. staffer last year and sentenced them to death, officials said Tuesday. Wonder if Mike Farrell will protest? The murder of 29-year-old Bettina Goislard, the first foreign U.N. worker to be killed in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, caused the "We wuz framed!" U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva confirmed the verdict, adding that the world body was seeking more information on the ruling. Afghan authorities said the two motorcycle-riding gunmen had initially confessed to the crime, and to being members of the Taliban. Khalid insisted there was no doubt about the men’s guilt and that the Kabul courts were perfectly able to decide their fate. "They killed Bettina in Afghanistan, and they are two Afghans," he said. "In French law they don’t have (the death penalty), but here we do." Which makes them rather more sensible and civilized in a way. Fair trial, just punishment. Human rights advocates have called on the moderate government of President Hamid Karzai to block executions at least until Afghanistan’s criminal justice system is overhauled. The man just told you that the justice system was working fine. Goislard was buried in Kabul; she had told co-workers that she wished to be buried in Afghanistan if anything happened to her. Better to work there than to be buried there. |
| Posted by:Steve White |