Activists demand death penalty for Afghan girl killer

KABUL activists in Kabul on Thursday demanded capital punishment for a detained Iranian boy accused of raping and killing a six-year-old Afghan refugee girl in Tehran.

The victim, Sataesh Quraishi, was found dead in Tehran a day after she had gone missing from her home there.

Sataesh’s father Sher Aqa Quraishi had said her daughter had been killed before being kidnapped and raped. The 19-year-old boy has been arrested by Iranian police.

On Thursday, some 20 civil society activists staged a demonstration for a second day in Kabul, condemning the incident and demanding harsher punishment for the killer.

One activist, Sami Durai, said Sataesh had been murdered after being sexually assaulted. “Afghan refugees are suffering from numerous problems in Iran, where they have no access to education, recreation and other facilities of life.”

He said the Afghans were routinely subjected to cruel tactics in Iran and the murder of Sataesh was one such example.

Another activist, Roshan Muhseni, said: “Afghans in Iran are gravely insulted and considered inferior, they are hurled abusive words and their minor girls are sexually assaulted and killed.”

She asked the Afghan government to defend the rights of Afghans living in Iran as soon as possible.

The civil society activists issued a resolution letter and handed over it to Iran’s Embassy and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) office in Kabul.

The resolution asked the government of Iran to investigate the murder of Sataesh in accordance with international, Islamic and humanitarian laws and punish the killer.

It said the Iranian media had said the killer was 19-year-old, but his pictures showed he was above 20, asking the government of Iran not to commit any negligence in delivering justice in the case.

The resolution said Iran should treat Afghan refugees in line with Islamic and humanitarian principles.  It urged the UN to put pressure on Tehran to investigate Sataesh’s murder in a judicious manner.

The civil society activists had asked the Afghan government to pave the ground for repatriation of the Afghan refugees from Iran.

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