Recently a report has been released through domestic and foreign media from the address of Universal Human Right Watch that, Afghan Government has decided to include the stoning punishment [Sangsaar] in the current draft of the Penal Code. The Ministry of Justice is providing below information in this regard:
The Afghan Penal Code has been enforced in 1976 and since then some new crimes have emerged which were not common while enacting the above stated Penal Code such as, money laundering, financing terrorism, cybercrimes and so on. On the other hand, some new laws containing criminal provisions have been enacted and enforced in different areas or special criminal laws have been amended from time to time. This has made it difficult for judicial entities to differentiate between enforced provisions and annulled ones.
Therefore, Ministry of Justice in order to solve this problem and provide facilities for mentioned entities and in order to complete the Afghan Penal Code, after consulting with the relevant entities, presented a specific request to the Office of the President. After its approval, Ministry of Justice assigned lawyers from different organizations and established several committees to review the Penal Code and draft a new comprehensive one. These committees have been working on the draft of Penal Code for past one and a half year.
Recently, a member of a sub-committee who is assigned to study and research jurisprudence resources suggested to include crimes such as Hudod, Qesas [retaliation] and Deyat [blood money] in the Penal Code like other sanctions [Taziree punishments]. However, this issue had also been raised when the [current] Penal Code was being drafted earlier [referencing the 1976 Penal Code], and considering the background of the Penal Code, the Ministry of Justice believes:
For enforcement Hudod punishments special conditions and limitations have been anticipated in the Sharia which is in contradiction with the general conditions of crime and punishment stated in the Penal Code, and regulation of which without observing all those conditions and limitations may not fulfill the objectives of the Sharia in enforcement of these punishments.
Moreover, the legality of crimes and punishment has been thoroughly observed in the explanations stated in article 1 and articles (394, 426, 436, 454 and 447) of the current Penal Code and there is no need to regulate [include] this area in the new Penal Code. Consequently, the Ministry of Justice has no intention to include them [Hudod, Qesas and Deyat] in the new Penal Code.
