KABUL - All the seven accused in the Paghman gang-rape case were on Sunday handed down death sentence by a primary court in the central capital Kabul, as protests against the widely condemned incident continued.

The seven men had been accused of looting passengers and sexually assaulting four women after intercepting vehicles on the main road in Paghman, a town west of Kabul.

Police had arrested seven of the 10-member gang. A day earlier, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) presented before the Supreme Court documents dialing crimes of the seven accused and recommended capital punishment for them.

Several protests have been carried out against the incident, seeking public execution of the alleged rapists.

President Hamid Karzai on Saturday promised he would sing off death sentence for the accused soon after the Supreme Court handed down its verdict in the case.

The primary court at the 3rd police district sentenced the seven men to death after recording testimonies of relatives of the affected women and other people who had been looted or abused by the accused.

The convicts were identified as Azizullah, Mustafa, Nazar Mohammad, Samiullah, Qaisullah, Safiullah and Jamil.

At the end of the open hearing, the public prosecutor announced that all the seven men had been found guilty of armed robberies, kidnappings and raping women and they were sentenced to death.

Judge Safiullah Mujaddedi ruled the accused were handed down the capital punishment for their involvement in multiple crimes.

He said some jewelries, a corolla car and money recovered from the men belonged to the affected families and would be handed over to them.

However, Mujaddedi said the verdict was not final and the convicts had the right to file an appeal against it. (Pajhwok)