Afghanistan’s Supreme Court Sentences Journalist’s Killer

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/world/asia/afghanistans-supreme-court-sentences-journalists-killer.html

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s highest court has ruled that a police officer convicted of murdering an Associated Press photographer, Anja Niedringhaus, should serve 20 years in prison, according to documents sent to the country’s attorney general on Saturday.

The final sentence for the officer, a commander named Naqibullah, who uses only one name, was reduced from the death sentence imposed by a lower court last year. Twenty years in prison is the maximum jail sentence in Afghanistan, said Zahid Safi, a lawyer for The A.P. who was briefed on the decision by the Supreme Court. The court’s ruling upholds an intermediate court’s decision.

Mr. Naqibullah opened fire on Ms. Niedringhaus and an A.P. correspondent, Kathy Gannon, without warning on April 4, 2014, as the two were covering the first round of the country’s presidential election outside the city of Khost, in southeastern Afghanistan.

Ms. Niedringhaus, 48, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer from Germany. Ms. Gannon, a senior correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan from Canada, was hit by six bullets and is recovering from her injuries.

Kathleen Carroll, The A.P.’s executive editor, said, “We are glad the judicial system in Afghanistan has completed the case against their attacker and trust the sentence will be carried out in full. And as the sad anniversary approaches, our thoughts and care are with Anja’s family and with Kathy.”

According to witnesses and court testimony, the two women were in the back seat of a car parked in a crowd of police officers and election officials at a police station when Mr. Naqibullah walked up to the vehicle, shouted “Allahu akbar,” and shot them with an assault rifle. He surrendered immediately. Witness and official accounts suggested that the shooting was not planned.

Mr. Naqibullah, believed to be 26, was convicted of murder and treason. During his trial, he did not offer a reason for the shooting, but said at one point that he was “not a normal person.”