Human Rights Watch presses for proper investigation to Yama Siawash’s murder

On the second anniversary of journalist Yama Siawash’s death Human Rights Watch demanded an international investigation into his death “and all attacks on journalists, activists, and other civilians.”

Yama Siawash was a Tolo News TV presenter who was famous for “engaging in heated debates with government officials on live television,” HRW explained. “He uncovered corruption and exposed the shortcomings of then-President Ashraf Ghani’s government, journalism that earned him threats from senior Afghan officials.”

On November 7, 2020, he was killed in a car bombing, moments after getting into a government-owned vehicle in Kabul. At the time of his death, he’d left Tolo News and taken a job at the country’s central bank. Though 11 suspects were eventually arrested, none went to trial. As HRW explained, “A parliamentary inquiry concluded that the authorities also failed to carry out a forensic investigation and preserve critical evidence from the scene of the attack, including the remains of the car.”

“The former Afghan government failed to carry out a thorough investigation or prosecute anyone for the crime,” HRW states.

The Siawash family accuses former government officials of blocking an investigation into his death. In a tweet published on Sunday, Yama’s father, Dawood Saiwash, asked that an investigation should look into the former president, his deputies, and the head of the central bank.

Siawash was killed at a time when attacks on journalists were skyrocketing in Afghanistan. According to a UN report, 33 journalists were murdered between 2018 and 2021.

The situation has gotten even more dangerous for members of the media under the Taliban. “With the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, access to justice has further narrowed as the group has dismantled the justice system and continues to carry out serious abuses against journalists,” HRW states.

Since returning to power, the Taliban have arbitrarily arrested journalists and attempted to silence them and their sources.