Feral Jundi

Friday, January 7, 2011

Legal News: Robert Langdon Escapes Death Sentence After Paying Afghan Family

     Thanks to Elena for forwarding me this news about Robert.  This article describes briefly what the ‘ibra’ is, and it is an interesting concept.

     As for Robert, the only thing I have to add is that I hope he survives imprisonment for the next 20 years in Pol-e-Charki prison. –Matt

Australian escapes death sentence after paying Afghan family

Ex-soldier has sentence commuted to 20 years in jail after paying relatives of murdered guard $100,000

By Jon Boone

Wednesday 5 January 2011

An Australian private security guard who murdered an Afghan worker has escaped the death sentence by paying the family of his victim $100,000 (£65,000), court documents reveal.

The former Australian soldier was handed the death sentence last January after a Kabul court found him guilty of shooting an Afghan colleague before making a crude attempt to make the crime look like a Taliban attack.

But it emerged this week that Robert William Langdon persuaded two supreme court judges that he should be allowed to live after the family of the dead man, who was known as Karimullah, accepted a large compensation payment raised by Langdon’s relatives in Australia.

However, the payment, known in sharia law as ibra, was not enough to commute the whole sentence, so Langdon will face 20 years in Kabul’s notorious Pol-e-Charki prison, home to Taliban and al-Qaida inmates as well as criminals. The jail term is thought to be the longest given to a westerner in Afghanistan since the toppling of the Taliban regime in 2001.

At the time of the killing in May 2009, Langdon was working for Four Horsemen International, a private firm which works with the US military and specialises in protecting military supply convoys.

(more…)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Legal News: Australian Sentenced To Death In Afghanistan

Filed under: Afghanistan,Australia,Legal News — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 8:46 AM

   Unfortunate to say the least.  It is hard to comment on this, other than I truly hope that justice is being served and the Australian government can help to commute the sentence.  This kind of deal is one of those things where you had to be there, in order to understand the dynamics. Was there an ambush, or was Langdon trying to cover up a killing? Did he shoot this individual out of self defense, or what?

    What I can do is highlight the fact that just because this man was a contractor, does not make him a criminal or instantly label him guilty. It’s too bad that most folks out there, who call themselves human rights activists, seem to be pretty quite when folks in my industry get screwed over by less than perfect legal systems.

    In final, the Afghanis will do whatever they want with this case, and Langdon is at their mercy. If any readers have anything to add, feel free to do so in the comments section. Also check out this article that shows the high level negotiations going on between the governments about this.-Matt

——————————————————————

Australian Sentenced to Death in Afghanistan

January 27, 2010

SYDNEY (AP) — An Australian security contractor has been sentenced to death in Afghanistan for fatally shooting an Afghan colleague and trying to blame the slaying on the Taliban, Australian and Afghan officials said Wednesday.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his government would try to prevent the former Australian soldier from being executed — an act that could raise tensions between Afghanistan and its largest non-NATO contributor of international security forces.

Australia strongly opposes the death penalty and regularly lobbies governments to commute the sentences of Australians convicted abroad of capital crimes.

Australian Robert William Langdon, 38, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death last October in a court in Kabul, and an appeals court upheld the verdict last week, Australian officials said Wednesday. They were confirming a media report Wednesday that detailed the case for the first time.

The Australian newspaper reported that Langdon was working for U.S.-based private security company Four Horsemen International and had admitted killing the Afghan guard last May during a heated argument about security for a convoy.

The newspaper said the convoy was ambushed by suspected Taliban in Wardak province south of Kabul but escaped to the provincial capital, where the two men argued about whether to continue.

(more…)

Powered by WordPress