04/08/22
The New York City Bar Association (“City Bar”) condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent brutal murder of Afghan professor and former prosecutor Mumtaz Sherzai.[1]
Mumtaz Sherzai’s Murder
On July 15, 2022, Mumtaz Sherzai went missing from his home in the Matun district of the city of Khost, in Khost province in southeast Afghanistan.[2] Sherzai was a former National Directorate of Security (“NDS”) prosecutor and a professor at Khost University.[3] The following day, on July 16, Sherzai’s remains were found in the Tani district, near the Khost province airport.[4] His bruised and bloodied body bore obvious signs of beatings and severe torture, which are presumed to be his cause of death.[5] Sherzai is survived by his wife and their three-year-old daughter.[6] He was the sole breadwinner for his extended family.[7]
Sherzai’s Targeting as a Former Prosecutor and as a Professor
Regrettably, Sherzai’s murder is by no means an isolated instance. Both his service as a former prosecutor and his employment as a law professor at the time of his death rendered him highly vulnerable as a target of the Taliban. As a federal prosecutor with the NDS in the Afghan government before the mid-August 2021 Taliban takeover, Sherzai was responsible for investigating and prosecuting cases involving domestic and international terrorism, as well as other national security-related crimes.[8] Like hundreds of other former prosecutors across the country, Sherzai feared Taliban retribution[9] and was seeking to be evacuated to safety.[10] Most of the former prosecutors who have not escaped Afghanistan are in hiding.[11] Moreover, even before mid-August 2021, federal prosecutors regularly fell victim to the Taliban and other insurgent forces.[12]
Sherzai’s post-August 2021 work as a law professor also made him a target. For example, in one of the most recent high-profile cases involving the persecution of an Afghan legal professional, the Taliban arrested Faizullah Jalal, a prominent professor of law and political science at Kabul University. When Jalal was snatched from his Kabul home on January 8, 2022, the international community was seized with fear for the professor’s life. His release by the Taliban, unharmed, mere days later has been attributed to the swift and vocal worldwide condemnation of the Taliban’s action. But for that global outcry, the professor likely may have met a very different fate.[13]
Protections for Sherzai Under International Law
Sherzai’s murder highlights the Taliban’s grave violations of basic principles and precepts of international law in Afghanistan. These principles and precepts are designed to protect all members of the legal profession.[14]
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/visa-program-failures-leave-afghan-allies-vulnerable
Tagged: Afghanistan, Canada, Day of the Endangered Lawyer, IBA, Observatoire international des avocats en danger, UN Human Rights Commitee, USA
IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers 
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