prs, دادگاه عالی , image = Logo of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.jpg , imagesize = 150 , alt = , caption = Logo of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan , image2 = , imagesize2 = , alt2 = , caption2 = , established = (current form) , dissolved = , jurisdiction =

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

, location =

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...

, coordinates = , motto = , type = Appointment by supreme leader , authority = 1964 Constitution , appealsto = , appealsfrom = , terms = , positions = , budget = , language = , tribunal-type = , website = , chiefjudgetitle = Chief Justice , chiefjudgename = Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai , termstart = 15 August 2021 , termend = , termend2 = , chiefjudgetitle2 = , chiefjudgename2 = , termstart2 = , termend3 = , termend4 = , chiefjudgetitle3 = , chiefjudgename3 = , termstart3 = , termend5 = , termend6 = , division_map = , division_map_size = , division_map_alt = , division_caption = The Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, known locally as the ''Stera Mahkama'' ( ps, ستره محكمه ; prs, دادگاه عالی), is the court of last resort of

. The current chief justice is Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai.

Islamic Republic (2004–2021)

The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was the court of last resort in the

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic that ruled Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan interim (2001–2002) and transitional (2002–2004) administrations, which were form ...

. It was created by the Constitution of Afghanistan, which was approved on January 4, 2004. Its creation was called for by the Bonn Agreement, which read in part: :The judicial power of Afghanistan shall be independent and shall be vested in a Supreme Court of Afghanistan, and such other courts as may be established by the Interim Administration. At the time of its dissolution, the court was made up of the following justices: *Chief Justice Sayed Yousuf Halim *Dr. Abdul Malik Kamawi *Barat Ali Mateen *Pohadowy Abdulqader Adalatkhwah *Abdul Haseb Ahadi *Mohammad Zaman Sangari The nine justices on the tribunal are appointed for 10-year terms by the

President of Afghanistan The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was constitutionally the head of state and head of government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021) and Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan Armed Forces. On 15 August 2021, as th ...

, with the approval of the

Wolesi Jirga The House of Representatives of the People, or Da Afghanistan Wolesi Jirga ( ps, دَ افغانستان ولسي جرګه), was the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, alongside the upper ...

, the lower house of the nation's legislature. The President selects one of the nine members to serve as Chief Justice. The constitution allows for judges to be trained in either civil or

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

. Matters of law with no provision in the constitution or other standing laws shall be judged by the Hanafi jurisprudence. The judiciary shall apply the

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...

school of law in cases dealing with personal matters of those who are of the Shia sect, where applicable. The Court was previously dominated by conservative religious figures and the former Chief Justice, Faisal Ahmad Shinwari, in particular was described as "ultra conservative." Several of its rulings disappointed reform-minded Afghans and people in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

. For instance: * the court, during the 2004 presidential election campaign, sought to ban a candidate who questioned whether

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is marr ...

was in keeping with the spirit of Islam; * they have called for an end to

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

service in the country, at least pending government regulation, due in part to the apparent influence of films from

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ...

, which were allegedly prurient; * the court upheld the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

for two journalists convicted of

blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religio ...

for saying the Islam being practised in the country was reactionary; * they banned women from singing on television; and * they ruled that a girl, given as a bride when 9 years old and now 13, could not get a divorce from her abusive husband, notwithstanding a law that makes it illegal for girls under 16 to marry. * they ruled that the punishment for

homosexuality Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...

is death, even through the penal code of 1976 stipulates long prison sentence for adultery and sodomy. In 2006, President

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

appointed several new, more moderate members to the court. However, he also chose to renominate Faisal Ahmad Shinwari as Chief Justice. Despite controversy surrounding the validity of Shinwari's legal credentials, his nomination was allowed to continue, but ultimately failed when voted on in the National Assembly. Karzai then chose his legal counsel, Abdul Salam Azimi, to succeed Shinwari. Azimi's nomination passed, and the new court was sworn in on August 5, 2006. On January 17, 2021, 2 female judges working at the Afghan supreme court were killed as they were driving to work.Gunmen kill two female Supreme Court judges in Afghanistan: police
Abdul Qadir Sediqi, Reuters, January 17, 2021

Building

The Supreme Court is housed in a four storey office building on Great Massoud Road next to Massoud Square. On February 7, 2017, a

suicide bomber A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

killed 20 people outside the building.

References

{{Asia topic, Supreme Court of, title=Supreme Courts of Asia, countries_only=yes Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

2004 establishments in Afghanistan Courts and tribunals established in 2004

Islamic Republic (2004–2021)

Building

See also

References