Entries Tagged 'Perwiz Kambakhsh' ↓

THREE Petitions for Afghan Journalist Perwiz Kambakhsh

February 1st, 2008 — litigation jihad, Afghanistan, Perwiz Kambakhsh, Sharia, activism, Islam, injustice, censorship

Update:

Another blogosphere victory - keep the pressure on!

NewsDaily: Afghan journalist may escape death penalty

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 6 (UPI) — A student journalist convicted of violating Islamic law in Afghanistan may escape the death penalty, a senior official in the Afghan government said.

An Afghan court found Sayed Pervez Kambaksh guilty of violating Islamic law for distributing information regarding women’s rights. Afghan law holds violations of Islamic law a federal offense and a court imposed a death penalty.

The Independent Wednesday quoted Najib Manalai with the Afghanistan Culture Ministry saying of the case, “I am not worried for his life. I’m sure Afghanistan’s justice system will find the best way to avoid this sentence.”

From Media For Freedom:

Mounting criticism of young journalist’s death sentence

By: IFEX
Posted on: 1/25/2008
SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris

**Updates IFEX alerts of 23, 17 and 15 January 2008**

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has appealed to President Hamid Karzai, currently attending the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, to quickly respond to the many appeals for clemency for Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, the young journalist who has been sentenced to death by a court in Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of the northern province of Balkh.

“Kambakhsh’s death sentence was the outcome of an unfair trial orchestrated by local officials and extremist religious leaders,” the organisation said. “We urge President Karzai to take a swift and clear decision in this case, which threatens press freedom in his country.”

A petition for Kambakhsh’s release can be signed on the Reporters Without Borders website at: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25199

The United Nations, many European countries and the European parliament’s president have all condemned Kambakhsh’s arrest and death sentence.

Balkh provincial state prosecutor Hafizullah Khaliqyar has nonetheless dismissed the charges that the court violated human rights and press freedom, insisting that the verdict was given “in accordance with Islam’s values.”

The case is now supposed to go before an appeal court, but Balkh provincial judge Fazel Wahab said “only President Hamid Karzai is in a position to pardon Kambakhsh because he confessed to his crime.”

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, Kambakhsh’s brother, said the verdict was “unjust.” Kambakhsh was not represented by a lawyer and was forbidden to defend himself. It appears that Ibrahimi is the real target in this case. A respected journalist who has covered the political situation in the north for International War and Peace Reporting, an NGO, he has been getting death threats for months from the henchmen of local officials and the security forces have searched his home several times, warning him of more reprisals to come.

The culture and information ministry said it had no authority over the case because “neither Kambakhsh’s arrest nor conviction was linked to his journalistic activities” and therefore “it is not a press freedom violation.” The ministry nonetheless added that it was “confident that the Afghan judicial system will handle the issue of the death penalty with the utmost care and will render justice, especially as the lower court’s sentence is not final.”

Rahimullah Samandar, the head of the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association, firmly condemned the trial and verdict on the grounds that they violated the constitutional rights to a legal defence and to free speech. He vowed to appeal to national and international courts, and called on President Karzai to overturn the verdict.

The French foreign ministry has expressed outrage at the verdict. “France stresses that it is completely opposed to the death penalty,” the ministry said. “Freedom of expression must be guaranteed, respecting the principles and values enshrined in the Afghan constitution.”

The president of the European parliament called on the Afghan authorities on 18 January 2008 to release Kambakhsh.

For further information, contact Vincent Brossel, RSF, 47, rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 70, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: asia@rsf.org, Internet: http://www.rsf.org

The information contained in this update is the sole responsibility of RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit RSF.

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From Nemeton:

Save Sayed Kambakhsh

Sentenced to death for reading about women’s rights

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.

That is terrible. We need to support Sayed Kambaksh - it is unthinkable that he should be executed merely for reading something.

Please sign the Independent petition for his release.

Posted by Yvonne

(h/t: Esra’a)

From The Jawa Report:

Petition for Afghan Journalist Perwiz Kambakhsh (Bumped)

Updated/Bumped 02/01/08: Come on now. Only ~~154~~ 200 sigs [as of 12:30pm CST 2/1/08] and we’re the only blog running this? A man’s life hangs in the balance.

So sign the petition.

Call your public officials. Write about it.

Thanks to all those who have already signed or ran the petition. To the rest of you, Get with it people!

Who Is Perwiz Kambaksh?

Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh has been sentenced to death by the moderate regime in Afghanistan for blasphemy.

The Afghan Senate has just endorsed his death sentence.

Via AFP: KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan’s senate has endorsed a death sentence handed down by a court to a reporter and journalism student accused of blasphemy, the parliament media office said.

The senate, called the Meshrano Jirga (House of Elders), issued a statement Tuesday backing last week’s decision by the Balkh province primary court and criticising international pressure over the case, an official told AFP.

The court sentenced Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, to death for distributing articles downloaded from the Internet that were said to question the Koran and the role of women in Islam.

“The Meshrano Jirga endorses the Balkh primary court’s verdict on sentencing to death Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh who has been sentenced over insulting Islam and misinterpretation of Koran verses,” said the statement read to AFP.

The house also “strongly criticises those domestic and international organisations which are pressurising Afghanistan’s government and legal authorities when pursuing such people,” it said.

Remember, death sentences are often carried out very quickly in these countries. So time is very short and its critical that we act as quickly as possible. There are only a few legal steps left before he is executed

The death sentence must pass through various higher courts and be approved by Karzai, who has been called on by international and Afghan media rights organisations to intervene in the case.

The extremist Taliban movement that is waging an insurgency against Karzai’s administration has also called for “severe punishment” for Kambakhsh, whom they called the “new Salman Rushdie”….

A petition to try and help Mr. Kambakhsh has been started here. Please sign it and spread it as far as you can. Hopefully we can help get Mr. Kambakhsh a pardon or a reduced sentence.

Never mind the absolute idiocy of allowing Afghanistan to enact a constitution based on Sharia law. If our soldiers fought and died to liberate Afghanistan we should have required they enact a better constitution like we did with Japan. I’ve been very disappointed with the new constitutions for both Iraq and Afghanistan.

More on that here.