Gill joins nationwide effort to help get prosecutors out of Afghanistan

Prior to August 2021, there were approximately 6,000 members of the Afghanistan Attorney General's Office who helped put together criminal cases against members of the Taliban on charges of murder, terrorism, assault and kidnapping.

Most of those prosecutors and staff members were trained by prosecutors from the United States and allied nations.

But the Taliban regained control of the country with the fall of Kabul in August of 2021. Now, more than 3,800 prosecutors and key staff members and their families who were unable to flee the country are in hiding. About 1,500 of those people are prosecutors.

"Prosecutors in Afghanistan, along with their families, are being hunted and killed," Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Thursday.

At least 26 prosecutors who were trained by the U.S. have been tortured and killed.

Gill and prosecutors from across the nation took time out from their Major County Prosecutors Council Meeting being hosted in Salt Lake City Thursday to publicly announce their support for the Prosecutors for Prosecutors campaign. The goal of the nationwide effort, launched by the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, is to raise $15 million to get those 3,800 prosecutors, staffers and family members out of Afghanistan.

"These are fellow prosecutors. These are men and women who have embraced the idea of a free society as the rule of law. These (people) are trained by the United States government to bring those democratic principles to bear and embolden those public institutions that are critical for a democratic and free society," Gill said.

Gill says his office has a natural affinity toward the prosecutors in Afghanistan because of their positions, "But there is also a commitment to the rule of law and what a free society means for a free people. And so we feel an intimate connection because they are applying the same principles that we apply as public prosecutors. And so simply to speak the truth and do the good and do the right which is what prosecutors do, to be targeted and their families to be targeted, is something we can't be silent to."

Jean Peters Baker, the Jackson County, Missouri prosecutor, says all of the prosecutors attending the conference in Salt Lake City have had death threats or people who were unhappy with them. "But none of us — none of us — have experienced the kind of grave danger that is being experienced right now by people that we've relied on, that we trusted, and they trusted us, to learn their skill, to do their job and to do their duty to hold the Taliban accountable."

Yama Rayeen, a former Afghanistan prosecutor who was able to flee the country, attended Thursday's press conference.

"My heart is heavy as I stand before to you," he said before holding a moment of silence for his fallen colleagues and to honor the courage of those who are still in hiding.

Afghan prosecutors who helped send members of the Taliban to prison prior to 2021 are "now paying a heavy price. They are being subjected to violence," he said. Some have been able to flee to nearby countries, while others are "forced into hiding to protect their lives."

"We must act now to bring them to safety," he said, calling for all prosecutors and members of the public to stand united. "Let us be the light who guides them through their darkest hours.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to their pleas. They have suffered enough. ... It is time for us to act, to put an end to the cycle of violence and suffering," he said.

A website has been set up for donations to help meet that $15 million goal. Gill said the money will go to nongovernment organizations that are in Afghanistan that can help facilitate the evacuation of prosecutors or change their immigration status to help extradite their visas.

Gill, who grew up in northern India, says he recognized the risk Afghan prosecutors took by accepting their positions and what it means to them to fight for democracy.

"I know that when that commitment was made by these men and women to the institute of democracy and the rule of law, what risk that they take on personally, and what it means within that culture that when you are willing to fight for that democracy, and if that foundation is not there what real danger they have put themselves into," he said.

"These prosecutors dedicated their lives to implementing a system based on American democracy and it is costing them dearly. Now is not the time to turn our backs against our partners."