Bleak courthouse

摘要

Adickensian mood pervades Kabul's legal world. Labyrinthine corridors give onto rooms stacked to bursting with dusty ledgers and hand-scrawled documents. With the business of the judiciary spread over 31 departments, case-files have a habit of being rarely, or never, sighted again once they enter the system. In the courtrooms, things are little more orderly. During one recent trial, Western journalists watched as the judge frequently interrupted the flow of evidence to chatter on his mobile phone and smoke cigarettes out of the window. The defence counsel's faltering performance, officials explained, was due to the fact he couldn't read very well.