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Home NATIONALKiller of Finnish aid workers sentenced to death in Afghanistan
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Tue, 20 Jan, 2015 01:06:14 AM
Finland opposes capital punishment in any circumstance
FTimes Report, Jan 20
 
The taxi which was carrying the Finnish aid workers during the attack. File Photo AFP-Lehtikuva.
An Afghanistan court on Sunday sentenced one person to death for killing two female Finnish aid workers in Herat city of the country in July last year.
 
The court awarded the capital punishment to Ahmad Farhad as allegations brought against him of gunning down the Finnish workers inside a car were proved beyond doubt, Finnish language evening tabloid Ilta Sanomat reported on Monday quoting local media.
 
Two other convicted in the case were sentenced to five years and two-and-a-half years imprisonment respectively for helping the killer.
 
Meanwhile, the Finnish authority opposed the death sentence of the killer terming it a cruel, inhuman and irreversible punishment.
 
“Finland, as does the whole European Union, opposes capital punishment always and in all circumstances. This stand does not depend on the State handing down the sentence or the citizenship of the person sentenced,” said a press release issued by the ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday evening.
 
Afghan medical workers carry one of the bodies of two foreign women who were gunned down by men on a motorcycle, at the morgue of Herat hospital on July 24, 2014. Two foreign female aid workers were shot dead by unknown gunmen while travelling in a taxi in the western Afghan city of Herat. Photo AFP-Lehtikuva.
The press release said, the Finnish authority knew through local media in Afghanistan that the person accused of killing Finnish aid workers in Afghanistan has been sentenced to death. The Afghan authorities have not confirmed the information.
 
“Capital punishment is a cruel, inhuman and irreversible punishment. Miscarriage of justice can lead to the irreversible loss of human life,” said the official press release, adding, “Capital punishment violates the right to life and is prohibited under the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
 
It also referred to the Article 2 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights provides that no one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed.
 
Killing the aid workers was a most reprehensible and regrettable, but also a highly unusual, crime against Finns, said the press release, adding that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has been in contact with the families of the slain Finnish aid workers on Monday.
 
Gunmen killed the two Finnish female aid workers in the western Afghan city of Herat on July 24, 2014.
 
The two aid workers working for the Christian charity organisation International Assistance Mission (IAM) were killed while riding in a taxi.
 
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