LONDON, July 18: A British court on Monday convicted Afghan warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad of torture and hostage-taking in Afghanistan in a landmark case for international law. Mr Zardad, 41, who lived in south London and had denied the charges, was due to be sentenced on Tuesday. It was the second time that he has faced a jury after an initial trial was halted last year.

Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith, who opened the first trial, said at the time he thought “it was the first time in any country, in international law, and certainly in English law, where offences of torture and hostage-taking have been prosecuted in circumstances such as this.”

While admitting the unorthodoxy of trying a foreigner in Britain for crimes that took place overseas, he noted there had been no other choice.

“There are some crimes which are so heinous, such an affront to justice, that they can be tried in any country,” Mr Goldsmith said.

“Mr Zardad was found in England. An international convention and English law allow the trial in England of anyone who has committed torture or hostage-taking, irrespective of where those crimes were committed.”

In fear of his life, the warlord fled to Britain in 1998 to seek asylum after fighting both the Russians and the Taliban during Afghanistan’s civil war between 1992 and 1996.

But two years after he settled in suburban south London he was confronted first by a BBC television crew and then by anti-terrorist branch detectives.

—AFP