A journalism student at Afghanistan’s Balkh University was sentenced to death on Tuesday for distributing material that he had printed from the Internet but that a religious court deemed offensive to Islam, the Associated Press reported.

A three-judge panel in the northern province of Balkh ruled that the student, Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, had violated the tenets of Islam by circulating an article that “commented on verses in the Koran that were about women,” according to Radio Free Afghanistan.

Several students complained to the government about the document’s content, the Associated Press reported, and Mr. Kambaksh, who also works for a local newspaper, was jailed. He has been detained since October and will remain in custody while his case is appealed.

The head of Afghanistan’s National Journalists’ Union condemned the ruling and called on Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, who has the authority to pardon Mr. Kambaksh, to intervene in the case.

The president of the Parliament of the 27-nation European Union has also urged Mr. Karzai to intervene. In a letter to the Afghan president, Hans-Gert Pöttering called on him to spare the student’s life. “The alleged ‘crime’ of this person would appear to be that he has distributed publications aimed at improving the situation of Afghan women,” Mr. Pöttering wrote. “Any efforts in this direction should be supported by you and your government, and it is essential that persons working for civil rights and freedom of expression be afforded sufficient legal protection.” —Aisha Labi