A British judge today sentenced a former Afghan warlord to 20 years in jail for torturing and terrorising civilians in his homeland over a period of four years.
The case was the first of its kind in Britain to involve human rights violations committed abroad and to have witnesses give evidence anonymously via a satellite link..
Farayadi Sarwar Zardad (42) was convicted yesterday for running a private army that brutalised Afghans in the Sarobi district east of Kabul that he commanded in the 1990s before he was ousted by the Taliban.
Zardad was found guilty at London's Old Bailey criminal court of conspiracy to torture people and take hostages.
The court heard how Zardad's men and the commander himself committed atrocities between 1991 and 1996 when he commanded an 80-kilometre area of territory that included a key highway from Pakistan to the Afghan capital.
He moved to Britain in 1998 seeking asylum and was running a pizza parlour in south London when he was arrested in 2002 after the case was brought to light by a BBC journalist.
Afghan witnesses, who said they received death threats for agreeing to give evidence in Kabul where Zardad's name is still feared, recounted how his men had robbed, beaten, raped, and murdered travellers at checkpoints and a nearby prison.
The verdict has been seen as a boon to human rights campaigners who have long called for countries to prosecute war criminals for actions carried out anywhere in the world.