It was a crime that shocked even veteran Afghanistan watchers: a young woman murdered in the capital by a frenzied mob, who beat her with fists and wooden planks in March 2015.

In the orgy of violence, 27-year-old Farkhunda Malikzada’s body was thrown from a roof, run over by a car, then dragged to the trash-strewn banks of the Kabul River and set ablaze — while police failed to intervene.

Her alleged crime: burning pages from a Quran.

That was exposed as false: 49 suspects were rounded up and 13 charged and convicted. The “Farkhunda murder” became an international test for Afghanistan’s shaky judicial system.

But last week — one year after her killing — the country’s highest court reduced the sentences of the convicted men and confirmed a lower court’s decision to quash four death sentences.

Amid protest, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered his government to reopen the case, and his spokesman said the attorney-general had been instructed to “make justice for Farkhunda his top priority.”

Those familiar with the Afghan justice system have less confidence. They say that in spite of more than a decade of state-building programs, it is dysfunctional and in need of radical reform.

“This case shows how chaotic and unpredictable the judicial system is,” says Stuart Hendin, an Ottawa lawyer and expert in human rights law. “The system is in a state of organized corruption and inefficiency.”

Hendin took part in a U.S. State Department-funded training program for Afghan police, judges and prosecutors from 2013-2014. And he said, “fixing the system is a Herculean challenge.”

At every stage of Farkhunda’s case, “the Afghan criminal justice system failed to adequately investigate, hold to account or appropriately punish those responsible, says Human Rights Watch’s senior Afghan researcher, Patricia Gossman.

“The trials of those originally accused were conducted in haste and riddled with procedural errors, with many defendants lacking legal counsel. Police also failed to arrest a number of attackers who are clearly identifiable in video footage of the killing,” she said.

This is the reality many Afghans face every day. So frustrated are they with the cost, corruption, dysfunction and endless waiting periods of the official system that they are turning to the Taliban’s informal — but speedy — courts.

“After more than a billion dollars in development aid to build up Afghanistan’s court system, it stands largely discredited and ridiculed by everyday Afghans,” said the New York Times. “A common refrain is that to settle a dispute over your farm in court you must first sell your chickens, your cows and your wife.”

Hendin agrees that corruption is a huge barrier to the rule of law in Afghanistan. If someone is found guilty, “it’s what kind of bribes will be paid to let them off. It depends on who the jail governor is, who is the judge — and the question is ‘what will it cost us?’”

In the case of Farkhunda’s murder, only 13 of the 49 suspects received major penalties. Nineteen police officers arrested for negligence were let off with pay cuts or leave cancellations.

From top to bottom, the Afghan justice system is riddled with problems, Hendin says.

“The average police trainee is illiterate. In a group of people being trained in forensic investigation, only one had been a street cop. Other positions had been bought. And after getting uniforms and paychecks the walk-away factor (from the force) is about 30 to 40 per cent.”

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Judges operate in a chaotic legal system. “One judge whom I was mentoring told me he was working on an easy case, with a confession. I asked him to show it to me. It was signed with a thumb print. Who wrote the confession? The accused couldn’t read or write. Did he even know what was written?”

And Hendin added, “there are no appeals and case precedents. No transcripts are kept. The prosecutors’ offices lack computers. The criminal code is regularly not followed. It’s not unusual for a judge to conduct a trial without the defence present, or any evidence tendered.”

Unsurprisingly, according to a 2014 Gallup poll, only 25 per cent of Afghans said they have confidence in the country’s judicial system.

The Farkhunda murder

March 19, 2015: Farkhunda Malikzada, a 27-year-old legal scholar accused of burning a Quran, is lynched by a mob in Kabul.

March 22, 2015: Farkhunda is buried as news of her innocence comes to light. In an unprecedented move, women carry her coffin.

March 23, 2015: Hundreds take to the streets in Kabul to protest the murder. Twenty-three people are arrested in connection with the killing.

May 5, 2015: Four men are sentenced to death for murder, eight others to 16 years in prison. Other prime suspects are still at large.

July 2, 2015: An appeals court overturns the death sentences and hands down 10-20 year terms instead. Street protests break out.

March 7, 2016: Afghanistan’s Supreme Court confirms the decision to overturn the death sentences, nine convicted men have sentences reduced.

March 10, 2016: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani orders the case to be reopened, calls for justice for Farkhunda.

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