Afghans spare journalism student accused of blasphemy
The Associated Press
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
KABUL: An Afghan appeals court on Tuesday overturned a death sentence for a journalism student accused of blasphemy for asking questions in class about women's rights under Islam. Instead, the judges sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
The case against the journalist, 24-year-old Parwez Kambakhsh, whose brother has angered Afghan warlords with his own writings, has come to symbolize Afghanistan's slide toward an ultraconservative view on religious and individual freedoms.
"I don't accept the court's decision," Kambakhsh said as he was leaving the courtroom. "It is an unfair decision."
The case can be appealed to the Afghan Supreme Court.
John Dempsey, an American lawyer who has been working for six years to reform the Afghan justice system, said Kambakhsh had yet to get a fair trial.
"Procedurally, he did not have many of his rights respected," said Dempsey, who attended the trial. "He was detained far longer than he should have been legally held. The defense lawyer was not even allowed to meet the witnesses until a night before the trial."
Kambakhsh was studying journalism at Balkh University in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and writing for local newspapers when he was arrested in October 2007.
Besides the accusation that Kambakhsh disrupted class with his questions, prosecutors also said he illegally distributed an article he printed off the Internet that asks why Islam does not modernize to give women equal rights. He is also accused of writing his own comments on the paper.
In January, a lower court sentenced him to death in a trial that critics have called flawed in part because Kambakhsh had no lawyer representing him.
Muslim clerics welcomed that court's decision, and public demonstrations were held against the journalism student because of perceptions that he had violated the tenets of Islam.
On Tuesday, five witnesses from Mazar-i-Sharif - two students and three teachers - appeared before the three-judge panel.
The first witness, a student who gave only one name, Hamid, told the court that he had been forced into making a statement accusing Kambakhsh of blasphemy by members of the Afghan intelligence service and by a professor. He said the professor threatened him with expulsion.
Other witnesses, however, testified that Kambakhsh had violated tenets of Islam.
The head of the panel in the Tuesday proceedings, Abdul Salaam Qazizada, struck down the lower court's death penalty and sentenced Kambakhsh to 20 years behind bars.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentence.
"Even though Kambakhsh's death penalty was overturned, today's sentencing is a great disappointment and a setback for the rights of free expression in Afghanistan," Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the organization, said in a statement.
The committee said earlier that it was concerned that Kambakhsh might have been targeted because his brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, had written about human rights violations and local politics.
Ibrahimi said Tuesday that his brother was sentenced because of the pressure from warlords and other strongmen in northern Afghanistan, whom he has criticized in his writings.
The Associated Press
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
KABUL: An Afghan appeals court on Tuesday overturned a death sentence for a journalism student accused of blasphemy for asking questions in class about women's rights under Islam. Instead, the judges sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
The case against the journalist, 24-year-old Parwez Kambakhsh, whose brother has angered Afghan warlords with his own writings, has come to symbolize Afghanistan's slide toward an ultraconservative view on religious and individual freedoms.
"I don't accept the court's decision," Kambakhsh said as he was leaving the courtroom. "It is an unfair decision."
The case can be appealed to the Afghan Supreme Court.
John Dempsey, an American lawyer who has been working for six years to reform the Afghan justice system, said Kambakhsh had yet to get a fair trial.
"Procedurally, he did not have many of his rights respected," said Dempsey, who attended the trial. "He was detained far longer than he should have been legally held. The defense lawyer was not even allowed to meet the witnesses until a night before the trial."
Kambakhsh was studying journalism at Balkh University in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and writing for local newspapers when he was arrested in October 2007.
Besides the accusation that Kambakhsh disrupted class with his questions, prosecutors also said he illegally distributed an article he printed off the Internet that asks why Islam does not modernize to give women equal rights. He is also accused of writing his own comments on the paper.
In January, a lower court sentenced him to death in a trial that critics have called flawed in part because Kambakhsh had no lawyer representing him.
Muslim clerics welcomed that court's decision, and public demonstrations were held against the journalism student because of perceptions that he had violated the tenets of Islam.
On Tuesday, five witnesses from Mazar-i-Sharif - two students and three teachers - appeared before the three-judge panel.
The first witness, a student who gave only one name, Hamid, told the court that he had been forced into making a statement accusing Kambakhsh of blasphemy by members of the Afghan intelligence service and by a professor. He said the professor threatened him with expulsion.
Other witnesses, however, testified that Kambakhsh had violated tenets of Islam.
The head of the panel in the Tuesday proceedings, Abdul Salaam Qazizada, struck down the lower court's death penalty and sentenced Kambakhsh to 20 years behind bars.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentence.
"Even though Kambakhsh's death penalty was overturned, today's sentencing is a great disappointment and a setback for the rights of free expression in Afghanistan," Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the organization, said in a statement.
The committee said earlier that it was concerned that Kambakhsh might have been targeted because his brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, had written about human rights violations and local politics.
Ibrahimi said Tuesday that his brother was sentenced because of the pressure from warlords and other strongmen in northern Afghanistan, whom he has criticized in his writings.
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