Taliban Sentences Afghan Translator’s Brother to Death Over Help to ‘Americans’, US Media Says

Earlier on Monday, Taliban* spokesman Suhail Shaheen insisted that videos showing militants raiding Afghans' homes, threatening them, and looking for former government officials are fake.

СNN claimed on Monday that they had obtained several Taliban letters allegedly revealing that the militant group had sentenced the brother of an Afghan translator to death over his support of the US. The authenticity of the letters cannot be immediately confirmed.  

“You have been accused of helping the Americans. You are also accused of providing security to your brother, who has been an interpreter”, the first letter reads, ordering the man to appear at a hearing.

The second letter contains a notice of the person’s failure to follow the Taliban’s order.

The first letter from the Taliban

© Photo : Obtained by CNN/screenshot

In the third document, the extremist group notes that due to the fact that the man had rejected previous warnings to stop his “servitude to the invading crusaders" and ignored a subpoena to appear for the hearing, he was "found guilty in absentia" and will be sentenced to death.

"These court decisions are final and you will not have the right to object. You chose this path for yourself and your death is eminent [sic], God willing", the third letter adds.

CNN cited an unnamed former service member who worked with the translator as saying that the Taliban had delivered the letters to the interpreter's brother within the last three months.

The second handwritten letter

© Photo : Obtained by CNN/screenshot

Neither the Afghan man nor his brother has been identified in order “to protect their identities amid the threats they're facing”, CNN reported, claiming that the letters, which were written in Pashto and translated into English for the news network, “have seals that match those of archival Taliban letters”.

This comes hours after Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen rejected footage allegedly showing the militant group’s attempts to clamp down on ordinary people and former government workers as “fake news”.

The third letter

© Photo : Obtained by CNN/screenshot

"I can assure you there are many reports by our opponents claiming what is not based on realities”, he told Sky News.

Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, a leading Taliban figure currently in charge of security in Kabul, for his part underscored that “all Afghans” should feel safe under the group’s “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, and that a “general amnesty” had been granted across all 34 of the country’s provinces.

Last week, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told reporters that the group is trying to project a more moderate image to the world now that they have come to power in Afghanistan following the seizure of the capital Kabul and the fall of the Afghan government on 15 August. Mujahid stressed that he "would like to assure the international community, including the US, that nobody will be harmed in Afghanistan".

*The Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.