11 police jailed over woman’s lynching

A judge sentenced 11 policemen to one year in prison Tuesday for dereliction of duty during the mob killing of a woman in Kabul who was falsely accused of burning a Qur’an.

Judge Safiullah Mojadedi, presiding in Afghanistan’s Primary Court, released another eight policemen for lack of evidence. The policemen were among 49 people charged over the brutal killing of 27-year-old Farkhunda at a Kabul shrine on March19. Like many Afghans, she used only one name.

The attack sparked protests in Afghanistan and reverberated around the world, highlighting the brutality faced by women in the country’s conservative society.