Reza Khan (died October 8, 2007) was charged
on August 5, 2004 in Kabul, Afghanistan of murder, rape, and robbery
involving four journalists on November 19, 2001. Khan was also accused
of cutting off the noses and ears of four Afghan men because of their
short beards. Khan was convicted in November 2004 and executed in
Afghanistan on October 8, 2007.
The journalists (Harry Burton, Maria Grazia Cutuli,
Azizullah Haidari, and Julio Fuentes) were traveling in a convoy from
Jalalabad to Kabul when a group of armed men dragged them from their
cars and murdered them.
Khan confessed to being one of eleven people who
stopped the vehicles and to personally killing one of the foreign men
and raping Cutuli; he said they got their orders from Taliban leader
Maulawi Latif. Khan also confessed to killing his own wife in Pakistan.
Death penalty for Afghan killer
BBC News
November 20, 2004
An Afghan accused of killing four journalists in
2001 has been sentenced to death by a court in Kabul.
Reza Khan was convicted of robbing and shooting the
three foreigners and an Afghan after holding them up on a road east of
Kabul in 2001.
He was also found guilty of raping one of them,
Italian Maria Grazia Cutuli.
"The crimes are proven and there is no doubt about
it," the presiding judge said as he passed sentence on Khan, 29, in a
Kabul court.
The journalists were stopped as they travelled from
Jalalabad to Kabul in November 2001, just days after the Taleban left
the capital.
The other victims were: Australian television
cameraman Harry Burton, Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari of
Reuters, and Julio Fuentes of El Mundo.
'Taleban order'
In court on Saturday, Khan denied shooting any of
the journalists and also denied the rape, according to Reuters news
agency.
He also alleged an order to kill them had come from
a top Taleban commander.
Khan, who appeared in court in a traditional
woollen hat and had a yellow blanked draped over his shoulders, was
given leave to appeal.
On separate charges, Reza Khan was also found
guilty of killing one of his wives and holding up a bus and cutting
off the noses and ears of four male passengers.
Last month, an Afghan court sentenced to death
three men for killing 11 Chinese road workers in June.
Reza Khan
The victims
Clockwise from top left: Harry Burton, Julio
Fuentes, Azizullah Haidari
and Maria Grazia Cutuli
