Historic UK verdict shows torture is a crime without borders

By Tichaona Sibanda
19 July 2005

An Afghan warlord, convicted on Monday in London of a campaign of torture and hostage taking in his homeland, has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

Faryadi Zardad from South London was found guilty at a retrial on Monday of pursuing a reign of fear at checkpoints in Afghanistan in the mid 1990's

The warlord fled Afghanistan in 1998 on a fake passport and sought asylum in the UK.

This is also the first successful prosecution of its kind in the world, which the Crown Prosecution Service described as an historic conviction that clearly demonstrate that there was 'no hiding place' for torturers and hostage takers.

Faryabi Zardad's conviction will certainly send shivers down the spine of Robert Mugabe's central intelligence organisation, which has over the years tortured and murdered many innocent Zimbabweans.

The CIO has also managed to infiltrate Zimbabweans in the Diaspora and Zardad's conviction and 20-year jail sentence will worry many security operatives in the country who are guilty of waging a savage campaign against opposition MPs and supporters, civic leaders and anyone seen as opposing the regime's rule.

Torture victim and Human Rights Lawyer Gabriel Shumba is encouraging Zimbabweans to take advantage of 'this precedent' and send affidavits to human rights organisation that deal with litigation.

Shumba said; 'We obviously welcome the incarceration of the Afghan warlord, but this is the time for us to harass our torturers from Zimbabwe and expose them to the world.'