Faryadi Sarwar Zardad
Encyclopedia
Faryadi Sarwar Zardad is a former Afghan
warlord
. In 2005 he was convicted in the United Kingdom where he was living, for conspiring to take hostages and conspiring to torture during the 1990s in Afghanistan
.
leader who fought during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He ran a Sarobi checkpoint, blocking the major route heading from Jalalabad
into Kabul
, that commonly robbed, abducted
and killed travellers between 31 December 1991 to 30 September 1996.
A widely publicised allegation regarding Zardad was that one of his militia, Abdullah Shah
, viciously bit prisoners and had even eaten at least one victim's testicle
s.
Shah was described as a "human dog" and kept in a cave with a chain around his neck by Zardad, and brought out to intimidate captured travellers. Shah was reportedly executed by the Afghan government in 2002.
In 1998, Zardad fled to Britain using a false passport
to avoid persecution under the ruling Taliban, and requested asylum. He was the subject of an exposé on a BBC
television programme, Newsnight
, first broadcast on 26 July 2000.
Zardad's presence in London had been discussed with a BBC reporter, John Simpson, by the Taliban's Foreign Minister
in Kabul, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil
, during an interview in 1999.
The minister had retorted to a question that "Well, you British are sheltering the criminal Commander Zardad". The BBC eventually tracked Zardad down after nearly a year, and found him living in Mitcham
, Surrey
.
He was interviewed by Simpson for the programme, in which Zardad claimed to have been based in Kabul and had only visited Sarobi as an adviser to the local commanders.
After the BBC report, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
(RAWA) launched an international campaign
urging the British government to prosecute Zardad. They issued a statement in many languages and circulated it through the Internet.
RAWA also issued a report entitled “Some reports of crimes committed by Zardad in Afghanistan”, which were used in his prosecution.
Zardad was briefly arrested on 10 May 2003 by officers of the Scotland Yard
's anti-terrorist branch and bail
ed only to be re-arrested on 14 July 2003, by which time he was living in Streatham
had been running a pizza
parlour in Bexleyheath
for three years.
, and two charges, under §1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977
, that he had conspired to carry out or order torture and hostage-taking.
Although the alleged crimes had taken place outside of the United Kingdom, the Law Lords had ruled in March 1999 when examining the case against General Augusto Pinochet
that torture is a crime of universal jurisdiction
and thus could be prosecuted within the United Kingdom; and indeed the UK was obliged under the United Nations Torture Convention to either extradite or prosecute someone facing plausible accusations of torture. Hostage
taking is similarly a crime of universal jurisdiction under the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages.
The trial took place in October 2004, with Zardad pleading not guilty to all of the charges.
During the trial, the prosecutor, Lord Goldsmith, stated that he believed that this was the first time in which someone had been prosecuted in one jurisdiction for alleged offences committed in the other.
One witness testified that he was stopped at a checkpoint by men with covered faces and sunglasses tied to a nearby metal chair where he was interrogated and tortured. Another, a lorry driver, claimed to have been kept prisoner for six months until a ransom was paid by the driver's brother. Zardad also denied having previously admitted to the British police that he attended a 15-day training camp where he had learned to use AK47s, rocket launcher
s and other weapons. However, the jury was unable to come to a verdict.
. As in the first trial, a court order
prevented the identities of many of the victims and witnesses from being revealed for fear of retaliation.
The trial included evidence of:
, recommended that Zardad be deported upon release.
A video, Zardad's Dog, of parts of the 2002 Kabul trial of Abdullah Shah
, was withdrawn from the October 2004 Turner Prize
exhibition at the Tate Gallery
just before the first trial started, to avoid potential contempt of court
prosecution. It was not publicly displayed until 3 October 2005.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
warlord
Warlord
A warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
. In 2005 he was convicted in the United Kingdom where he was living, for conspiring to take hostages and conspiring to torture during the 1990s in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
.
War crimes
Born circa 1963, Faryadi Sarwar Zardad is Pashtun and a former MujahideenMujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
leader who fought during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He ran a Sarobi checkpoint, blocking the major route heading from Jalalabad
Jalalabad
Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...
into Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
, that commonly robbed, abducted
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
and killed travellers between 31 December 1991 to 30 September 1996.
A widely publicised allegation regarding Zardad was that one of his militia, Abdullah Shah
Abdullah Shah
Abdullah Shah was an Afghan man found guilty in Kabul of killing more than 20 people, including his wife. His sanctioned execution was the first in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001....
, viciously bit prisoners and had even eaten at least one victim's testicle
Testicle
The testicle is the male gonad in animals. Like the ovaries to which they are homologous, testes are components of both the reproductive system and the endocrine system...
s.
Shah was described as a "human dog" and kept in a cave with a chain around his neck by Zardad, and brought out to intimidate captured travellers. Shah was reportedly executed by the Afghan government in 2002.
In 1998, Zardad fled to Britain using a false passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
to avoid persecution under the ruling Taliban, and requested asylum. He was the subject of an exposé on a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television programme, Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
, first broadcast on 26 July 2000.
Zardad's presence in London had been discussed with a BBC reporter, John Simpson, by the Taliban's Foreign Minister
Foreign minister
A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
in Kabul, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil
Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil
Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil was the last Foreign Minister in the Taliban government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.Prior to this he served as spokesman and secretary to Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of the Taliban. After the Northern Alliance accompanied by U.S...
, during an interview in 1999.
The minister had retorted to a question that "Well, you British are sheltering the criminal Commander Zardad". The BBC eventually tracked Zardad down after nearly a year, and found him living in Mitcham
Mitcham
Mitcham is a district in the south west area of London, in the London Borough of Merton. A suburban area, Mitcham is located on the border of Inner London and Outer London. It is both residentially and financially developed, well served by Transport for London, and home to Mitcham Town Centre,...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
.
He was interviewed by Simpson for the programme, in which Zardad claimed to have been based in Kabul and had only visited Sarobi as an adviser to the local commanders.
After the BBC report, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan is a women's organization based in Quetta, Pakistan, that promotes women's rights and secular democracy...
(RAWA) launched an international campaign
urging the British government to prosecute Zardad. They issued a statement in many languages and circulated it through the Internet.
RAWA also issued a report entitled “Some reports of crimes committed by Zardad in Afghanistan”, which were used in his prosecution.
Zardad was briefly arrested on 10 May 2003 by officers of the Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
's anti-terrorist branch and bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
ed only to be re-arrested on 14 July 2003, by which time he was living in Streatham
Streatham
Streatham is a district in Surrey, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
had been running a pizza
Pizza
Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...
parlour in Bexleyheath
Bexleyheath
Bexleyheath is a main suburban district of Southeast London, England, in the London Borough of Bexley with a small percentage of the district itself being in the London Borough of Greenwich. Bexleyheath is located on the border of Inner London and Outer London. It is east south-east of Charing Cross...
for three years.
The first trial
The day following his arrest he was charged with 16 offenses relating to his time as a military commander during the Afghan civil war in the early 1990s. There were nine counts under §134 (1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 that, as a military commander in the Sarobi region of Afghanistan, he tortured or gave orders to carry out torture as part of his official duties; five counts under §1(1) of the Taking of Hostages Act 1982 that he detained hostages and held them to ransomRansom
Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...
, and two charges, under §1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977
Criminal Law Act 1977
The Criminal Law Act 1977 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Most of it only applies to England and Wales. It is mainly significant because it defines the offence of conspiracy in English law...
, that he had conspired to carry out or order torture and hostage-taking.
Although the alleged crimes had taken place outside of the United Kingdom, the Law Lords had ruled in March 1999 when examining the case against General Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
that torture is a crime of universal jurisdiction
Universal jurisdiction
Universal jurisdiction or universality principle is a principle in public international law whereby states claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other...
and thus could be prosecuted within the United Kingdom; and indeed the UK was obliged under the United Nations Torture Convention to either extradite or prosecute someone facing plausible accusations of torture. Hostage
Hostage
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
taking is similarly a crime of universal jurisdiction under the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages.
The trial took place in October 2004, with Zardad pleading not guilty to all of the charges.
During the trial, the prosecutor, Lord Goldsmith, stated that he believed that this was the first time in which someone had been prosecuted in one jurisdiction for alleged offences committed in the other.
One witness testified that he was stopped at a checkpoint by men with covered faces and sunglasses tied to a nearby metal chair where he was interrogated and tortured. Another, a lorry driver, claimed to have been kept prisoner for six months until a ransom was paid by the driver's brother. Zardad also denied having previously admitted to the British police that he attended a 15-day training camp where he had learned to use AK47s, rocket launcher
Shoulder-launched missile weapon
A shoulder-fired missile, shoulder-launched missile or man-portable missile is a projectile fired at a target, small enough to be carried by a single person, and fired while held on one's shoulder...
s and other weapons. However, the jury was unable to come to a verdict.
The second trial
Zardad was retried in 2005, with charges of conspiracy to torture, and conspiracy to take hostages, both contrary to the 1977 Criminal Law Act. Evidence was taken from 16 witnesses via a video link to the British Embassy in KabulKabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
. As in the first trial, a court order
Court order
A court order is an official proclamation by a judge that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out of certain steps by one or more parties to a case...
prevented the identities of many of the victims and witnesses from being revealed for fear of retaliation.
The trial included evidence of:
- Summary executions and hostage taking
- The killing of 10 or 11 men in a minibus; their families screaming at the roadside
- An elderly man whipped and locked in a metal cupboard
- A man having petrol poured over him whilst Zardad's militiaMilitiaThe term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
joked about setting fire to it. - A small boy witnessing his father's ear being cut off.
The outcome
The jury in the second trial found him guilty on 18 July 2005, and he was sentenced 20 years in prison – receiving 20 years for each of the two charges to be served concurrently. The judge, Mr Justice Colman Treacy, QCColman Treacy
Sir Colman Maurice Treacy , styled The Hon. Mr Justice Treacy, is a British High Court Judge.He attended Stonyhurst College and Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1971 he was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, and appointed as QC in 1990....
, recommended that Zardad be deported upon release.
A video, Zardad's Dog, of parts of the 2002 Kabul trial of Abdullah Shah
Abdullah Shah
Abdullah Shah was an Afghan man found guilty in Kabul of killing more than 20 people, including his wife. His sanctioned execution was the first in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001....
, was withdrawn from the October 2004 Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
exhibition at the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
just before the first trial started, to avoid potential contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
prosecution. It was not publicly displayed until 3 October 2005.
External links
- Newsnight programme expose on Khan, BBC news, 26 July 2000
- 'Afghan warlord' arrested in London, BBC news, 16 July 2003
- Landmark torture trial opens at Old Bailey, Guardian Newspaper, 9 October 2004
- Afghan warlord could face retrial, Guardian Newspaper, 18 November 2004
- Case fraught with difficulty, BBC news, 12 October 2005
- How Newsnight found Zardad, BBC news, 18 July 2005
- Afghan warlord guilty of torture, BBC news, 19 July 2005
- Warlord artwork finally hits Tate, BBC news, 27 September 2005
- Crown Prosecution Service press release, 19 July 2005
- Afghan Warlord Gets 20 Years Jail for Torture, Epoch Times, 19 July 2005
- Langlands & Bell: Zardad's Dog, Tate Britain exhibition 3 October-3 November 2005