Kabul (AFP)

On the television set, the arrangement of photos of corpses, crime scenes, weapons ... seems straight out of the first episodes of "Bring in the accused". In Afghanistan, "Adalat" is inspired by the queen of French criminal programs to encourage Afghans to believe in their justice.

The staging follows the hexagonal frame: after a credits as black as breathless, a long traveling introduces the Afghan presenter ... who finishes the emission while the light goes out. Twenty minutes, police, lawyers, victims and defendants take turns explaining the case of the week.

"We were inspired by + Bring in the accused +", recognizes Arif Ahmadi, the managing director of Awaz, which produces Adalat. He had seen the French program with an expatriate friend in Kabul. "We just put a little more light on the set, because we wanted to show that justice is simple, it is transparent."

"Adalat", which means "justice" in Persian, does not only tell of the great crimes that have agitated Afghanistan, a country at war for four decades, where murders have been legion.

The program also focuses on less media-related cases, violence against women and other acts of corruption, which it narrates with pedagogy. The legal texts are cited, but simplified, for the good understanding of the viewers.

In an episode devoted to the rape of a young woman in Bamiyan (center), an investigator reports "eleven different pieces of evidence attesting to the guilt" of the two attackers, while a prosecutor explains why the "maximum sentence", namely eight years, was demanded against them.

On appeal, the two men, who denounce "a set up", will however be sentenced to six and one year in prison.

- Democratize justice -

"We are not saying that justice is great, or that no one is corrupt," said Arif Hamadi. "The idea is to democratize the idea of ​​justice, to explain the law to people by showing them that there are complicated words, but that in the end everyone can understand."

"In Afghan society, men and women are victims because they do not know their rights," agrees presenter Shukria Niazai, 25, who says she is "proud" to teach the population "how to defend themselves".

The program, funded by international donors, found its followers, welcomes Najibullah Hameed, an official of the Aryana channel, which broadcasts it. In the absence of reliable audience measurements in Afghanistan, he recounts the "numerous telephone calls" of frustrated viewers when Adalat had been suspended from the air during a sports competition.

The concept "is very effective," he adds, in a country where 57% of the population is illiterate, according to Unesco, and the print media rarely consulted. "Television and social media are the best way to get messages out," said Hameed. "You have to show people things they can see."

- Popular support -

Before Adalat, numerous programs and series were produced to generate popular support for the fragile Afghan state, ravaged by four decades of war.

The international coalition led by the United States, which ousted the Taliban from power at the end of 2001, thus "invested a lot" in the Afghan audiovisual sector until 2014, when it transferred the security of the country to the Afghan forces, "to show the public that they were competent, that they had the right weapons, "recalls Wali Arian, a former interior ministry communicator.

"The media have done a tremendous amount to build confidence in the security forces," said Massood Nawabi, an executive with Tolo TV, the country's largest private channel.

"It's not only subsidized, we also do it for free," as when the last season of the New Afghan Star was dedicated to Afghan forces, he notes.

"Adalat" is very timely for the Afghan authorities, while Kabul must soon start peace negotiations with the Taliban. For two decades, the corruption of the justice system and its ineffectiveness have been "one of the main reasons why people believe more in their government", insists Arif Ahmadi.

In the countryside, the insurgents won many hearts thanks to their Sharia-based justice, although they were more concise.

Adalat "shows that the institution and its prosecutors are working," notes Jamshid Rasooli, spokesman for the Afghan attorney general's office: the program "increases popular confidence in the justice system." And to hope: "When they have a problem, they will come to us."

© 2020 AFP