(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed the 4 June 2005 arrest of Mahmood Zar Jan, the suspected head of a gang responsible for the death of four journalists in November 2001. “We hail this arrest with relief and encourage the Afghan authorities to treat this case with the utmost seriousness and to bring this presumed killer […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed the 4 June 2005 arrest of Mahmood Zar Jan, the suspected head of a gang responsible for the death of four journalists in November 2001.
“We hail this arrest with relief and encourage the Afghan authorities to treat this case with the utmost seriousness and to bring this presumed killer to trial,” the organisation said.
Zar Jan was arrested together with four accomplices on the evening of 4 June after a shootout with police in which he reportedly sustained gunshot injuries. The arrests took place in Sarobi (50 km east of Kabul), close to where the journalists – Maria Grazia Cutuli, Harry Burton, Julio Fuentes and Azizullah Haidari – were murdered four years ago. The gang leader was transferred to Kabul on 5 June.
Zar Jan is alleged to have been the main person to order the killing of the journalists. Reza Khan, a member of the same gang, was convicted of participating in the murders and sentenced to death on 20 November 2004.
