The judges, dismissed immediately after the Taliban overthrew the elected government, have filed a suit demanding that the Taliban return them to their positions and provide them with the salaries due to them.
Former judges and magistrates, sacked by Afghanistan’s present Taliban government, have demanded the return of their jobs. Judges and magistrates from 34 provinces, numbering over 200, have filed a suit against the government, demanding that they be reinstated.
The judges and magistrates had been sacked by the Taliban after the armed group overthrew the elected government in August 2021.
They held a press conference after filing their case, demanding that the Taliban return them to their positions and provide them with the salaries due to them.
Arafat Ghavam, one of the dismissed judges, was quoted by Radio Azadi as saying that the judges would leave the country if no decision is made within a month.
The Taliban are working to reinstate the Sharia legal system.
“We have set a time for them to review our demands for a month, because if our demands are not met, most judges will have to leave the country and become immigrants,” Radio Azadi quoted him as saying.
“Should this happen, it will not be a good result for the governing system, for the nation, or for the people,” he said.
Many women judges and magistrates and even prosecutors have gone into hiding in recent months as many of the people whom they had sentenced to prison terms were holding them responsible for their incarcerations and were threatening them.
A prosecutor had earlier spoken of receiving calls from a drug peddler he helped get convicted for his illegal drug trade. The caller had demanded that he be compensated.
Read: The fall guys of Afghanistan’s Sharia legal system
According to Radio Azadi, Taliban government officials refused to respond to requests for comment on the latest protest and lawsuit by the judges and magistrates.
Earlier, Radio Azadi had quoted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying that some judges had been dismissed for their alleged involvement in injustices and corruption in the previous pro-Western government.
Many of the former judges had sentenced Taliban and Islamic State extremist members, kidnappers, drug traffickers, and other criminals to prison over the past two decades.
One of the first things the Taliban had done upon seizing power was to throw open the gates of the Kabul prison.
Image: Courtesy Naqiba Barikzal
