AFGHANISTAN - New death sentence

Infamous Afghan commander receives 1st post-Taliban death sentence

For 1st time since the fall of the Taliban regime last year, a court in Afghanistan's capital handed down a death sentence on Tuesday - to an infamous military commander accused of killing more than 20 people, including his own wife.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hadi Shinwari told The Associated Press that the condemned man, Abdullah Shah, had the right to appeal the verdict.

 State television said Shah pleaded innocent.

 If the decision is upheld after appeal hearings that could last another 2 months, President Hamid Karzai must sign an execution order, Shinwari said.

 The former Taliban government, which strictly imposed Islamic sharia law, became notorious for executing condemned criminals by publicly hanging them at Kabul Stadium.

 Shah was arrested 2 months ago, said Khoja Ahmad Sadiqi, a senior official of the Supreme Court.

 Nine people testified against him, including another wife he tried to burn to death by dousing her with petrol and setting it on fire, Sadiqi said.

 Shah was accused of brutally killing some 20 people whose bodies were found in a water well in Paghman district, in Kabul Province, Sadiqi said.

 Shah served under another commander named Zardad, who was a deputy of former prime minister and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

 Shah earned the nickname "Zardad's dog," because he was known to have attacked people 'like a dog' in Zardad's company. In the early 1990s, the two reportedly robbed passers-by on the road from Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad.

 State television said one of Shah's accomplices, Mohammad Arif, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Arif also pleaded innocent.