 By Kim Sengupta in Kabul Conservative and religious groups in Afghanistan reacted with fury yesterday to the news that Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who was sentenced to death for promoting women's rights, has been freed. After President Hamid Karzai secretly pardoned the 24-year-old student, hardliners called for an urgent ulama, a meeting of Islamic scholars, to organise protests against the decision. Mr Kambaksh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, said he was "very glad, very happy" at what had happened, and human rights organisations and a number of liberal parliamentarians welcomed the news. The fate of Mr Kambaksh became a cause célèbre after his plight was revealed by The Independent. A petition to secure justice secured more than 100,000 signatures and the Afghan government came under pressure from Western leaders to free him. Mr Kambaksh's original death sentence was set aside by Afghanistan's Supreme Court. But the judges ruled that he must serve at least 20 years in prison. Following the presidential amnesty he is now starting a life with a new identity in another country after 20 months of incarceration. Mr Ibrahimi said: "We are all very happy that so much progress has been made with Pervez and I want to thank all the people who have helped in this. I have to be careful about what I say but, of course, Pervez should never have been put in that position, it was wrong. The family is very glad he is out." Read more here,,,, Source: The Independent H/T: JihadWatch 
 Kabul, 9 March (AKI) - Afghanistan's Supreme Court has upheld a 20-year jail term for blasphemy handed to Afghan journalist Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, who claimed men and women were equal. Kambakhsh's brother said the family had just learned of the closed-door ruling delivered a month ago in the absence of Yaqub Kambakhsh, his lawyer or family members, the Information Safety and Freedom media watchdog reported on Monday.
"We thought there would be some justice in the capital of Afghanistan and even at the highest level of the judicial system," wrote Yaqub Kambakhsh in a letter sent to Information Safety and Freedom.
"But their silent decision seems that first of all there is no justice in Afghanistan at any level. "Kambakhsh is the latest victim."
Twenty-eight year-old Kambakhsh's troubles began in 1997, when he wrote in his blog that "extremist mullahs" had distorted the true meaning of Islam's holy book or Koran.
"If a Muslim man may have four wives, why shouldn't a wife have four husbands," he wrote.
He was arrested on blasphemy charges in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif in 2007 and in October that year a local court condemned him to death
The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment following pressure from international human rights organisations.
Yaqub Kambakhsh visited Italy and other European countries last month to try and muster support for his brother's release and fears for his safety in prison.
"We, Parwez's relations, his colleaues and his lawyers fear he could be murdered in prison, possibly by poisoning - he wouldn't be the first such victim," he stated in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Corriere della Sera quoted Italy's under-secretary for foreign affairs, Alfredo Mantica as claiming the government was concerned about Kambakhsh, but considered it better to intervene after presidential elections due in August 2009 to avoid "politicising" the case.
"It's a fact that Afghanistan's courts are strongly influenced by the religious authorities," Mantica stated. Source: AKIH/T: Gateway Pundit
From correspondents in Kabul | October 21, 2008
AFGHANISTAN'S appeal court sentenced an Afghan journalist to 20 years in jail, commuting an earlier death sentence, for distributing an Internet article that said the Prophet Mohammad had ignored the rights of women.
Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, a reporter with the Jahan-e Now daily, was sentenced to death in January by a court in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
The arrest and sentencing of Kambakhsh, also a university student, drew criticism from a number of Western nations, the Afghan media and rights groups. Kambakhsh downloaded an Iranian article from the Internet and distributed it to friends.
"The court has sentenced Perwiz Kambakhsh to 20 years jail for the crime he has committed.
But this is not the final hearing, he has the right to appeal," judge Abdul Salaam Qazizada told the court. Source: The Australian Afghanistan's Appeal Court
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KABUL: The lawyer of an Afghan reporter sentenced to death on blasphemy charges accused authorities yesterday of holding his client beyond a legal deadline. The appeal of Perwiz Kambakhsh — arrested last October and sentenced to death by a primary court in January — has been repeatedly delayed because witnesses who testified against him earlier did not turn up to court. “Based on the law, an appeal court can hold a suspect only for two months. Within this two months, it either should rule or otherwise the suspect must be freed,” lawyer Mohamed Afzal Shormach Nuristani told reporters in Kabul. “The detention of my client, Mr Kambakhsh, is against the law,” he said. The reporter, who is in his early 20s, has alleged torture during custody and said the first trial lasted only minutes and he was not given legal representation. Read more ...Source: Gulf TimesH/T: Shariah Finance Watch
 Sayed Pervez Kambaksh's sentence
has generated much controversyBy Alastair Leithead In Kabul's grim and crowded central prison, a 23-year-old student from northern Afghanistan spends each day wondering if and when he will be put to death. Sayed Pervez Kambaksh was sentenced in January, in five minutes, at a local court in Mazar-e-Sharif, with no legal representation to defend charges of blasphemy after reports he had downloaded from the internet un-Islamic material on women's rights. "I don't know what will happen to me," he said from the prison office where we were allowed half an hour to interview him. "My trial was unfair from the beginning. From day one, they have been treating me very harshly as a criminal, not a suspect, and I don't know who has done this to me.  President Karzai has to approve
any death sentence"My case has been politicised - my lawyer has been threatened. I have lost nine months of my life now in four prisons," he said. 'Deviated from religion'There is an appeals process but his family have little faith in it - there have been many delays and little information. The international community has raised the issue and asked for Sayed Pervez Kambaksh to be pardoned or released, but the case is a glaring example of the conflict between conservative Islam and the liberal Western views of Afghanistan's international backers. "Kambaksh has deviated from religion, and Islam orders that he must be executed," said Enayatullah Baleegh, a member of the Islamic ulema council and a popular and well-respected Muslim scholar. Read more ...Source: BBCH/T: Shariah Finance Watch
By Jerome Starkey The Afghan lawyer defending a journalist on death row in Kabul has been bombarded with death threats urging him to drop the case. Islamic extremists repeatedly threatened to murder Afzal Nooristani after he agreed to defend Sayed Pervez Kambaksh in his high-profile appeal. The 23-year-old student writer was sentenced to death for circulating an article about women's rights. He was tried in a closed court, and denied a defence lawyer. His case has sparked worldwide protests. In Afghanistan, conservative clerics have led rallies endorsing his conviction, while others have marched for his release. Most lawyers were too afraid to take his case. Read more ...Source: The Independent
 Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh in court, June 1, 2008.By Jean MacKenzie The mood was almost festive at the start of the latest appeal hearing in the case of Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, who has spent over seven months in prison facing execution on a charge of defaming Islam and the Prophet Muhammed. A large sign in English proclaimed “This Way” with arrows pointing to the courtroom, and the large group of observers had simultaneous translation into English laid on, complete with special interpreting equipment. The Afghan and international press corps, representatives of foreign embassies and human rights groups, civil society activists including a long row of brightly dressed and very intense Afghan women had turned out in force at the Kabul Appeals Court for what everyone expected would be the last chapter in a long and dismal saga. Two previous sessions had ended in adjournment – the first, on May 18, because there was no defence lawyer present, and the second, on May 25, because Kambakhsh complained of ill health. Read more ...Source: IWPR
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's appeal court referred Sunday a reporter sentenced to death on blasphemy charges to hospital for medical tests after he said he was tortured by security forces who fractured his nose. Perwiz Kambakhsh, arrested late October and sentenced to death in January, has denied the charges and alleged security forces used torture to force him into a confession. His defence lawyer, Mohammad Afzal Nuristani, repeated the allegation in court Sunday and requested the 23-year-old reporter be referred to hospital for forensic tests. "My client has been tortured while in custody. He has suffered a fracture to his nose and damage to his wrist," he said. Read more ...Source: AFP H/T: Shariah Finance Watch
Afghanistan's upper house of parliament has issued a statement backing a death sentence for a journalist for blasphemy in northern Afghanistan. Pervez Kambakhsh, 23, was convicted last week of downloading and distributing an article insulting Islam. He has denied the charge. The UN has criticised the sentence and said the journalist did not have legal representation during the case. The Afghan government has said that the sentence was not final. A government spokesman said recently that the case would be handled "very carefully". Now the Afghan Senate has issued a statement on the case - it was not voted on but was signed by its leader, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, an ally of President Hamid Karzai. It said the upper house approved the death sentence conferred on Mr Kambaksh by a city court in Mazar-e-Sharif. Read more ...Source: BBCH/T: Jihad WatchMore on this story Death Sentence for Afghan StudentAfghan Senate
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Muslims Against Sharia strongly denounce this draconian sentence. We appeal to President Hamid Karzai, NATO, and the International community to intervene on behalf of Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh. Afghanistan cannot be a member of the free world while its citizens are being charged with blasphemy.Update: Afghan government official says that student will not be executedUpdate: Afghanistan's "New Rushdie"
By Abdul Waheed Wafa and Carlotta Gall
KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan court in northern Afghanistan sentenced a journalism student to death for blasphemy for distributing an article from the Internet that was considered an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, the judge in charge of the court said Wednesday.
The student, Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, 23, who also works for a local newspaper, was charged with insulting Muhammad by calling the prophet "a killer and adulterer," the judge, Shamsurahman Muhmand, said in a telephone interview.
The sentence was denounced as unfair by Mr. Kambakhsh's family and journalists' organizations. Mr. Kambakhsh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, denied that his sibling had committed blasphemy, and said that his brother was not given enough time to prepare his defense and was denied a lawyer.
Mr. Kambakhsh has the right of appeal to the regional court and the Supreme Court.
He is being punished for articles written by his brother, said Jean Mackenzie, director of the Institute for Peace and War Reporting in Afghanistan, which has printed some of Mr. Ibrahimi's articles. Officials from the National Directorate of Security raided Mr. Ibrahimi's home and seized his computer hard drive the day after his brother was arrested in October, she said. They were most interested in the sources for an article critical of a local militia leader and legislator named Piram Qol, she said.
The case is the third time that clerics have called for death for a blasphemer in the six years since the removal of the Taliban leadership and reflects the deep conservatism that prevails even under the more liberal government of President Hamid Karzai.
Mr. Kambakhsh is a student in the town of Mazar-i-Sharif and also works as a reporter for a daily paper, Jahan-e-Naw. He was accused of downloading a controversial article and adding some of his own words about the ignorance of the Prophet Muhammad on women's rights. Source: The New York Times H/T: AtlasMuslims Against Sharia strongly denounce this draconian sentence. We appeal to President Hamid Karzai, NATO, and the International community to intervene on behalf of Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh. Afghanistan cannot be a member of the free world while its citizens are being charged with blasphemy.Update: UN urges review of journalist's death sentence
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By Kim Sengupta in Kabul
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