Former Afghan prosecutors hunted down, killed by Taliban 3 years after US withdrawal

The three years following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan have been a deadly game of cat and mouse for employees and allies of U.S. and NATO forces left behind under Taliban rule. Among the de facto government’s targets are thousands of Afghan prosecutors trained by U.S. personnel to enforce the rule of law and prosecute terrorists.

As the Taliban rapidly gained Afghan territory in the summer of 2021, they released convicted terrorists from government jails across the country. The Taliban had been conducting deadly attacks to target Afghan prosecutors for years before taking over Kabul on Aug. 15. The newly-released prisoners were out for revenge against the prosecutors who put them behind bars.

Joe Maida IV was a former Texas prosecutor who supported the Afghan legal system’s growth inside the country between 2006 and 2013 and worked on Afghan policy at U.S. Special Operations Command and with Special Operations and Combating Terrorism at the Pentagon through 2019. He told Fox News Digital that “The Taliban continues to hunt down individuals who supported the Afghan government.” In addition to military personnel, Maida says the Taliban “are seeking out terrorism prosecutors for retribution. They’re doing that by sending special teams to the provinces, but then also writing letters to the mosques to identify these individuals, who then disappear.”

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Saeed, who spoke to Fox News Digital on condition that he is identified by a pseudonym, is the executive director of the Afghan Prosecutors Association and was a prosecutor in the Attorney General’s Office of Afghanistan. Saeed provided an Excel file the Afghan Prosecutors Association has compiled containing details about 32 prosecutors and their family members who have been killed since July 5, 2021. 

Victims’ manners of death are gruesome. Most were shot, either in a public location or at their homes. Some were killed by anonymous gunmen, while others were specifically murdered by the Taliban. Two prosecutors were killed by improvised explosive devices. Others were arrested and tortured. Three victims were women. More than a third of the entries included photos of the victim after their death. 

Saeed said that an additional 100 prosecutors have been injured since the U.S. withdrawal, and another 50 are believed to be “locked up in Taliban prisons and their fate is unknown.” 

About 1,000 of the 3,800 prosecutors believed to be in practice prior to August 2021 have fled to European countries, Saeed estimates. He said that 1,500 who remain stuck in Afghanistan are “in need of urgent assistance.” Saeed believes that about 500 prosecutors fled to Pakistan, Tajikistan and Iran, where they live in “a state of despair” amid harassment and forced deportations. 

Hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane at a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, Aug. 17, 2021. (AP)

Legal professionals who protected women’s rights have also seen their efforts made null and void under the Taliban. One of thousands of hidden Afghan legal professionals, Amina spoke to Fox News Digital on condition that she was referred to by a pseudonym. Amina said she was “on the verge of qualifying to be a lawyer” when the government collapsed. In 2021, Amina was working as an assistant lawyer in the Kabul courts, focusing on domestic violence cases.

According to a report by the United States Institute for Peace, divorce is no longer a legal option for women in Afghanistan, with the Taliban issuing a blanket revocation of all divorce decrees granted by the prior Afghan government in March 2023. With domestic abuse shelters closed since August 2021, women experiencing violence at the hands of their husbands are now taken to Taliban jails, where some Afghan women have reportedly been raped and even murdered by the Taliban.

Amina says she has felt personally responsible for not “doing enough to educate women about human rights.” She now devotes herself to educating Afghan women online and providing mental health consultations for Afghans in crisis. “This is the time that my people need me,” she explained. 

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In this Aug. 15, 2021 file photo, Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. (AP Photo/Zabi Karimi)

Many U.S.-based attorneys have joined the fight to support Afghan prosecutors, including East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore. As a member of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA), Moore has been supporting prosecutors in their fight to remain alive in Afghanistan. Moore told Fox News Digital that the APA is in touch with “hundreds of prosecutors who are now begging for help.” He estimates that about 20% of Afghan prosecutors and judges were women and are at special risk inside their country. 

Unlike military translators and employees of American institutions, prosecutors did not serve the U.S. directly and are not eligible for special immigrant visas. Legislative efforts to extend access to the SIV program, including the Afghan Adjustment Act and Afghan Allies Protection Act, have not gained passage in Congress. 

Afghan women wait to receive food distributed by a humanitarian aid group in Kabul, Afghanistan, in April 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

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Some legislators have expressed concern about the vetting process for Afghan refugees. Moore explained that prosecutors “have been vetted repeatedly” and have “passed background checks that most American citizens could never pass,” which informs his opinion that “there’s little to fear and much to be gained by helping these people resettle in the United States.” 

To help prosecutors reach safety three years after the U.S. withdrawal, Moore said the APA is raising funds to move the 1,500 prosecutors living in hiding in Afghanistan to safe third countries. The estimated cost will be around $15 million, about $10,000 per family.

There is some hope that government support for prosecutors is forthcoming. Moore said that the State Department “has been more receptive to including former prosecutors, especially women,” in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). Moore reported that the APA has been working on getting prosecutors’ applications ready for review. 

U.S. soldiers from 2nd Platoon Chaos Company 1-75 Cavalry 2nd Brigade 101st Airborne Division take position as they patrol in Didar village in Zari district of Kandahar province, south of Afghanistan on Oct. 25, 2010. (MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP via Getty Images)

A State Department spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether it is working to include prosecutors in the USRAP. The spokesperson said that the State Department “remain[s] focused on honoring our promises to these allies and are grateful to the Americans from all walks of life who have helped us welcome more than 160,000 Afghans to communities across the United States during the past three years.” 

Saeed was referred to the Priority-1 program within the USRAP three months ago and recently received his notification of acceptance. He now awaits his interview and at least 12–18 months of processing. 

Saeed desperately longs for peace. In 2020, he was targeted for death by Talibs released from prison. After the Taliban searched his home in December 2022, he fled to Pakistan to protect himself and his family. Saeed says he still experiences “a hopeless and problematic situation” inside Pakistan, where the cost of living is high and refugees cannot work or seek education for their children. 

Taliban fighters patrol on the road during a celebration marking the second anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023. (AP/Abdul Khaliq)

Threats of deportation continue to loom, with Pakistan deporting thousands of Afghan refugees illegally into the country in November 2023. Though Afghans with letters verifying they have a pending application for a pathway to safety in the U.S. were meant to be protected from deportation, a source who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News Digital that in July, Pakistan deported some Afghans with USRAP referrals. A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that they “have no comment on this specific incident.” 

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The issue of aiding prosecutors is personal for Kevin Rardin, a career prosecutor with the Memphis District Attorney’s office, who was also a Judge Advocate in the Army Reserves. As the legal advisor to the commander of the U.S. and NATO training mission, Rardin was a mentor for his Afghan counterparts. He told Fox News Digital that “the worst days of my deployment came 13 years after I left the country, in August 2021.” 

“You don’t have to be a lawyer to understand that this is wrong. You just have to be a decent person with moral principles,” Rardin continued. “When I was in Afghanistan, Afghans protected me. They kept me out of trouble, they introduced me to their culture. They accepted me, I ate with them. They included me. And now we just up and left. You can’t call yourself a human being and do that.”