Not even the prospect of having his brother-in-law executed for a crime he claims he did not commit is enough to put Padsha Khan, a casual labourer from Kabul, off capital punishment.

For Mr Khan the dramatic end of a three-year freeze on executions, which led to the shooting of 15 prisoners at Kabul’s notoriously grim Policharki prison earlier this month, did not come a moment too soon.