JINHA

NEWS CENTER - Yesterday, women gathered outside the mosque where the young woman Farkhunda Malikzade was killed in Kabul to protest the reversal of death sentences for her killers.

In March, a group of men lynched and killed young woman Farkhunda Malikzade outside the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque in Kabul. A local amulet seller had accused her of burning the Qur'an after she denounced his practice as profiting from the superstition of the poor. After women led protests across the country, 49 men went on trial for their roles in Farkhunda's killing. Four of those men received death sentences.

Last week, Afghan courts dropped the death sentences to 20-year prison sentences in a closed-door meeting. Women gathered yesterday at the mosque where Farkhunda was killed to demand justice in the killing. According to Malalai Joya, the reduction of the sentences opened the way to the killers' going free.

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