KABUL — Amnesty International has once again called on the Taliban to immediately end what it described as a “disgraceful smear campaign” against journalist Mahdi Ansari, who is serving an 18-month prison sentence following what the organization termed a “grossly unfair sham trial.”
In a post on Saturday, Amnesty International said the Taliban’s judicial system has, over the past four years, become “a tool of repression against anyone who criticizes the Taliban’s draconian decrees, policies and practices,” targeting journalists, civil society members, and human rights defenders through arbitrary arrest, unlawful imprisonment, and forced confessions.
“No journalist should be imprisoned for their work; Mahdi Ansari must be immediately and unconditionally released,” the rights organization said, urging the Taliban to ensure that, pending his release, Ansari is held in humane conditions and granted access to healthcare, legal representation, and family visits.
Ansari, 27, a journalist with Afghan News Agency, was arrested by Taliban intelligence agents in October 2024 near his office in Kabul’s Dasht-e-Barchi area. In January 2025, a Taliban court sentenced him to one and a half years in prison after a closed trial held without legal counsel or family presence. He was accused of “spreading propaganda” against the Taliban for his reporting and social media posts on attacks targeting the Shia community in Kabul.
Rights groups, including Reporters Without Borders, the Afghanistan Journalists Center, and the Afghanistan Independent Journalists’ Union, have also condemned his detention and sentencing, describing it as part of the Taliban’s systematic crackdown on press freedom.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on the media, detaining dozens of journalists and shuttering independent outlets.
Human rights organizations warn that Afghanistan’s few remaining reporters face growing threats, intimidation, and censorship in what has become one of the world’s most repressive environments for press freedom.
