Bio 

Reza Khan was born around 1975 and was an Afghan national. Khan was linked to an armed group operating on the road between Jalalabad and Kabul. That route was dangerous at the time because Afghanistan was in a period of political and military transition. Foreign and Afghan journalists were entering the country to report on the fall of the Taliban and the changing war situation. The four journalists later killed were traveling in a convoy when armed men stopped their vehicles.

Khan was later accused not only of the journalist murders, but also of other violent acts. He confessed to killing his own wife in Pakistan. He was also accused of cutting off the noses and ears of four Afghan men because their beards were considered too short. These accusations were separate from the journalist-murder case, but they were part of the broader criminal record reported after his arrest and conviction.

Murder Story

On November 19, 2001, four journalists were traveling from Jalalabad to Kabul in Afghanistan. They were covering the war and the collapse of Taliban control in Kabul. The victims were Harry Burton, an Australian cameraman for Reuters; Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan photographer for Reuters; Julio Fuentes, a Spanish reporter for El Mundo; and Maria Grazia Cutuli, an Italian reporter for Corriere della Sera.

The journalists were traveling in a convoy when armed men stopped the vehicles near the Sarobi / Surobi area east of Kabul. Reports state that the attackers pulled the journalists from their cars, robbed them, and shot them. Cutuli was also raped before she was killed.

Reza Khan was later arrested and prosecuted in Kabul. According to reports, he said that the armed group had acted under orders from a Taliban commander. He was accused of being one of the men who stopped the convoy and took part in the attack. Later summaries state that he confessed to being one of eleven people involved, personally killing one of the foreign men, and raping Maria Grazia Cutuli.

On November 20, 2004, a Kabul court convicted Khan and sentenced him to death. He was found guilty in connection with the killing of the four journalists, as well as the rape of Cutuli. ABC News reported that he was also given a 15-year sentence on the rape charge, while the murder conviction carried the death penalty.

The legal proceedings later drew concern from international human-rights groups. Amnesty International reported in 2006 that Afghanistan’s Supreme Court had reportedly upheld the death sentences of Khan and two other men accused in the journalist-murder case, while also raising concerns about whether the men had received a fair and independent trial under international standards.

Reza Khan was executed by shooting on October 8, 2007. His execution closed the criminal case against him, although questions remained around the full group involved in the attack and the broader command responsibility behind the killings.