Update on Sayed Pervez Kambaksh

(see here for backstory)

According to the Independent, Pervez isn’t going to be executed after all:

The condemned student journalist Sayed Pervez Kambaksh will not face execution, a senior government official in Afghanistan indicated yesterday. A ministerial aide, Najib Manalai, insisted: “I am not worried for his life. I’m sure Afghanistan’s justice system will find the best way to avoid this sentence.”

It was the clearest indication yet that the 23-year-old will have his death penalty revoked amid mounting international pressure on the Afghan authorities.

Mr Kambaksh was condemned to die by an Islamic court for insulting Islam. He was found guilty under sharia law after he distributed articles from the internet on women’s rights at Balkh university in northern Afghanistan, an act he claims was aimed at provoking debate. His family say he was not allowed a defence lawyer and the trial was in secret.

Of course, just because he’s not going to be executed, doesn’t mean he’s going to be freed.

(via Harry’s Place)

Afghan human rights

A man in Afghanistan is sentenced to death:

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country’s rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after “liberation” and under the democratic rule of the West’s ally Hamid Karzai.

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

Kambaksh should be immediately freed, and the judge who passed this sentence sacked — or better still, put to death himself. But if, on the other hand, this sentence is carried out, then Britain needs to seriously look at what we are doing in Afghanistan: why should British troops risk their lives for such a barbaric government? If the people of Afghanistan want to live in the dark ages, I suppose that is their choice, but Britain should not spend blood and money helping them.

If you want to help save the life of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the Independent has a petition, and there is also a facebook group.

(via Slashdot)