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KABUL, 27 APR - Un detenuto afghano condannato a morte e' stato giustiziato nove giorni fa in Afghanistan; si � trattato della prima esecuzione dalla caduta del regime dei taleban. Lo ha annunciato oggi l'organizzazione per la difesa dei diritti umani Amnesty International, in un comunicato.

Abdullah Shah, un comandante militare di Paghman, alla periferia nord-ovest di Kabul, e' stato messo a morte il 19 aprile, afferma Amnesty International, e la notizia e' stata confermata oggi da Nader Naderi, membro della Commissione indipendente afghana dei diritti dell'uomo.

''Le circostanze esatte dell'esecuzione - soprattutto il luogo e le modalita' impiegate - non sono state ancora rese note e la Commissione cerca attualmente di stabilire i fatti'', ha detto Naderi.

Abdullah Shah era stato condannato in prima istanza nel luglio del 2002 dalla giustizia afghana per l'uccisione di una delle sue donne, di due dei suoi figli e di due contadini di Paghman.

Afghanistan carries out first execution since fall of Taliban

By PAUL HAVEN

KABUL, Afghanistan  _ Afghanistan has carried out its first execution since the fall of the hardline Taliban, putting a bullet to the head of a former military commander convicted of more than 20 murders, officials said Tuesday.

The government did not acknowledge the April 20 execution of Abdullah Shah at a jail just east of the capital until it was revealed by Amnesty International in an e-mailed protest letter Tuesday.

The international human rights group accused the government of carrying out the sentence without affording the accused <even the most basic standards> of fairness.

It said the suspect was likely silenced so he could not testify against commanders allied to the government who have allegedly carried out human rights abuses.

<Amnesty International fears that Abdullah Shah's execution may have been an attempt by powerful political players to eliminate a key witness to human rights abuses,> the group said. <During his detention, Abdullah Shah reportedly revealed first hand evidence against several regional commanders currently in positions of power against whom no charges have been brought.>  The group did not name the commanders.

Abdul Mahmood Daqiq, the director of the attorney general's office, confirmed Shah's execution in Pul-e-Charkhi jail, and said U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai's office signed off on the death warrant.

<Last year three courts confirmed Abdullah Shah's sentence,> Daqiq said. <But it was delayed for months until Karzai's office signed off on it.>  Daqiq said Shah was shot in the back of the head and that the death sentence was carried out in front of witnesses including representatives of the Afghan police and the Attorney General's office. Doctors were also on hand.

Karzai's office could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday, a public holiday in Afghanistan to mark the 12th anniversary of the end of communist rule.

Shah was first convicted in special court proceedings in October 2002. He was found guilty of killing more than 20 people, including his wife.

Nine people testified against him at the trial, including another wife he tried to burn to death by dousing her with gasoline and setting her on fire.

The bodies of many of Shah's victims were found in a well in Paghman district, just east of the capital.

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

He 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 Jalalabad.

Amnesty said it was <shocked> that the execution was carried out, and said it contravened an assurance that Karzai gave the group for a moratorium on such punishments.

It said Shah was not provided a defense attorney at a secret trial, and that the first judge in his case was dismissed for taking a bribe. The second judge, the group said, came under pressure from the Supreme Court to impose the sentence.

Shah claimed during trial that a confession was obtained under torture, but Amnesty said those charges were not properly investigated.

At least two other people, suspected Taliban wanted in the November 2003 killing of French U.N. worker Betinna Goislard, have been sentenced to death in Afghanistan. They are appealing the verdict.

Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime used to carry out executions in public, many of them at the war-shattered Kabul stadium, but the practice stopped after they were ousted from power by the U.S.-led coalition in late 2001.