Zardad's counsel heads into the courtroom yesterday 19 July 2005 -- An Afghan warlord found guilty by a British court of torture and hostage taking during fighting in Afghanistan a decade ago is due to be sentenced today.
It is believed to be the first case of a foreign national tried in Britain involving human rights violations committed abroad. It also featured witnesses giving evidence anonymously via a satellite link.
Farayadi Sarwar Zardad was found guilty yesterday of atrocities against civilians in the early and mid-1990s, when he commanded an 80-kilometer area of territory east of Kabul. Zardad reportedly controlled a highway between the Afghan capital Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Zardad moved to Britain in 1998 seeking asylum and was running a pizza parlor in south London when he was arrested by antiterrorism police in 2002.
(compiled from agency reports)
More Afghan news:
"Karzai Arrives In Britain"
"Race To Preserve Historic Minarets Of Herat, Jam" (with slide show)
Farayadi Sarwar Zardad was found guilty yesterday of atrocities against civilians in the early and mid-1990s, when he commanded an 80-kilometer area of territory east of Kabul. Zardad reportedly controlled a highway between the Afghan capital Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Zardad moved to Britain in 1998 seeking asylum and was running a pizza parlor in south London when he was arrested by antiterrorism police in 2002.
(compiled from agency reports)
More Afghan news:
"Karzai Arrives In Britain"
"Race To Preserve Historic Minarets Of Herat, Jam" (with slide show)
