August 15 marks the two-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul, which completed the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. Two weeks later, only two American officials remained in the country. The US Embassy’s chargé d’affaires, Ross Wilson, and US Army Gen. Christopher Donahue took the last flight out of Afghanistan. With the Americans gone, the Taliban had total control. This would prove deadly for many Afghans, but especially for the country’s former prosecutors and judges, who experts say are now being hunted.
Twenty-nine Afghan prosecutors have been killed by the Taliban in the last two years. Three of those killings have occurred within the last three weeks. Many former prosecutors are hiding in fear, unemployed, and unable to provide for their families. It is a problem some experts say the new government created and encouraged.
“The Taliban released everybody [from jail] and said, ‘Go take your revenge with impunity,’” Executive Director of Jewish Humanitarian Response (JHR) Caroline Marks told The Media Line. “So, all the wife beaters, wife murders, rapists, former corrupt politicians, those who were arrested and detained for terrorism, they are the ones who, in addition to the Taliban, are also hunting them down. They essentially end up doing a service for the Taliban.”
One prosecuter was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered
Former prosecutor Mumtaz Sherzai is one such example of a hunted litigator. On July 15, 2022, a gang of Taliban pulled Sherzai away from the home he shared with his wife and 3-year-old daughter in Khost, a city in Southeastern Afghanistan. It wasn't the first time the Taliban had kidnapped Sherzai, who was working as a law professor at Khost University—but this time it would be the last. The following day, locals found his tortured body two miles away from his home, dumped near the airport. He only made it 11 months under the Taliban’s rule.
“There is a dire need for saving these people and their families,” former Attorney General Mohammad Farid Hamidi, who was also Sherzai’s boss, told The Media Line. “The Taliban hates the judicial system, like attorneys, prosecutors, and judges because a big number of Taliban were arrested and tried according to the laws of the country. And they served in jails.”
Hamidi served as Afghanistan's attorney general from March 2016 until March 2021 under President Ashraf Ghani. He recently teamed up with Prosecutors for Prosecutors, a new coalition of humanitarian organizations and American legal professionals who are focused on evacuating Afghan prosecutors. The project is led by The Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, an organization based in the US that aims to defend prosecutors.
“We were moved to launch this campaign because we were getting so many desperate pleas for help.”
David LaBahn
“We were moved to launch this campaign because we were getting so many desperate pleas for help,” President and CEO of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys David LaBahn told The Media Line. “These are our colleagues. They were trained by the US and allied nations to uphold the rule of law. We can’t just leave them behind to be hunted and killed.”
Prosecutors for Prosecutors aims to evacuate 1,500 Afghan prosecutors and their families out of Afghanistan, which the group estimates will cost $15 million to accomplish.
“Every organization we work with is asking for two things: governments to expedite the relocation of prosecutors in danger and money to help pay the costs incurred by these prosecutors who are in hiding and unemployed. We are trying to bring awareness and raise funds for this desperate need,” LaBahn said.
Awareness and legal assistance for visas have been two major issues for humanitarian groups working to evacuate Afghans. Because of this, organizations involved in the project say they’re excited about working with the prosecutors and expect their involvement will help breathe new life into the plight of America's left-behind allies in Afghanistan.
“They’ve got people who can get out there in the public and be mouthpieces for the issue,” Marks said of JHR’s collaboration with Prosecutors for Prosecutors. “It is really difficult to maintain interest in this and of course the governments aren't stepping in to be the solution providers, therefore it is up to the NGOs and private funding to actually help people.”
JHR, a member of Prosecutors for Prosecutors, has extensive experience with humanitarian crisis support in Afghanistan which includes all aspects of evacuation operations for endangered and critically ill Afghans.
“We need continued help and continued advocacy. If anyone can do it, politicians and prosecutors, they can do it,” Elizabeth Lynn, a US Navy Afghanistan War veteran and Operation Recovery senior staff member, told The Media Line.
Operation Recovery is a multifaceted humanitarian organization that, much like JHR, began Afghanistan evacuation operations just after the fall of Kabul and is now working with Prosecutors for Prosecutors.
According to Lynn, the expertise provided by the legal community empowers the NGOs who have been doing this work for several years.
“It provides us with one more level of support,” she said.
The organizations hope that support will help move along the visa process for Afghan prosecutors. There is a push to have prosecutors included in the Afghan Adjustment Act, with proponents arguing a prosecutor provision must be added. The act failed to be included as an amendment in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, and the legislation’s future is unclear.
Still, Hamidi is hopeful that US politicians will carve out a place in the US visa system for his colleagues, who he says stood side by side with the US in fighting terrorism.
“Prosecutors and judges are forgotten allies, and this is the time for US leaders, and also the allies of the US, to take a share of this burden and to provide resettlement opportunities and safe places for prosecutors and judges,” Hamidi said.
Prosecutors for Prosecutors comprises 10 founding organizations: Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Afghanistan Prosecutors Association, Jewish Humanitarian Response (JHR), Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, International Association of Prosecutors, NATO AFG Justice Sector, No One Left Behind, The #AfghanEvac Coalition, Operation Recovery, and Freedom Bird Foundation.