An Afghan court earlier today sentenced four men to death for the public lynching in Kabul of a 27-year-old woman falsely accused of burning the Quran.
Judge Safiullah Mojaddidi, announcing the verdict in a case which sparked a public outcry. Convicted accused Zainul Abiddin, Mohammad Yaqub, Mohammad Sharif and Abdul Bashir were sentenced to be hanged by the neck till death.
On Sunday, the video of a mob killing the Afghan woman accused of burning pages from Quran was shown in court in the trial of nearly 50 people.
The judge asked prosecutors on the second day of the trial to play footage, shot with mobile phone cameras, of a crowd kicking and beating the 27-year-old woman, named Farkhunda.
A total of 49 men, including several police officers, are on trial in the killing.
The police are accused of standing by and allowing the mob to kill the woman in broad daylight.
The attack proved a polarising incident in Afghanistan.
Some say the killing was a defence of Islam. Many others were outraged at the viciousness of the attack, even before an investigation showed that Farkhunda had been falsely accused of desecrating the Quran.
