Nearly 4,000 prosecutors and legal staff members face the threat of violence from the Taliban in Afghanistan, where at least 28 prosecutors and their families have reportedly been killed.
When the Taliban seized back power in the country in August 2021, Sara—who was 28 at the time—was just a few weeks shy of completing three years serving as a prosecutor in the Afghan attorney general’s office.
“The Taliban came and released all the criminals we had convicted, and I started to receive death threats– phone calls saying they would destroy my life and my family,” she told the Guardian, speaking from a safe house in a neighboring country she fled to after the Taliban takeover.
Mahmodi, who is also a member of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys Afghanistan that is working in exile to support Afghan prosecutors at risk, said there were more than 3,800 prosecutors and legal staff members that remain in danger in Afghanistan.
A UN report, in January, shared similar findings: “A subset of prosecutors–especially those who investigated and prosecuted members of the Taliban–face extremely grave risks as a result of their previous work, and many reportedly remain in hiding. Reports indicate that criminal offenders who were released by the Taliban have also sought to carry out reprisals against prosecutors and judges.”
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