February 6, 2008

Afghan President Says Journalism Student Is Unlikely to Be Executed

Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, weighed in directly today for the first time on the fate of a journalism student who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy, telling a delegation of Afghan reporters that “they had no reason to worry about him,” according to a statement released by the press-freedom organization Reporters Without Borders.

A three-judge religious court sentenced the student, Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, to death last month for offending Islam by allegedly distributing an article, printed out from the Internet, that asked why Muslim men are permitted to have four wives while women are allowed only one husband. “Parvez denies committing the crime of blasphemy and totally rejects the charge that he downloaded an offensive article from the Internet which was circulated at Balkh University, where he is a student,” Mr. Kambaksh’s brother, who is also a journalist, wrote in an article about the case. Mr. Kambaksh is appealing his conviction and remains in jail.

The Afghan Senate initially backed the religious court’s sentence, but a day later retreated from that position, saying through a spokesman that its original endorsement had been a “technical mistake.”

The case has prompted protests in Kabul, the nation’s capital, and international outrage. Amid a crescendo of calls for him to pardon Mr. Kambaksh, Mr. Karzai has remained publicly noncommittal. His spokesman indicated that the president was “concerned” and “watching the situation closely,” but would defer to the judicial process, The Independent reported.

As recently as Tuesday, the Associated Press quoted the spokesman as saying that Mr. Karzai was not planning on intervening “until the courts have their final say.” Today’s comments are the clearest indication so far that the death sentence against Mr. Kambaksh will not be carried out. —Aisha Labi

Comments

1. Seems like a case-in-point for why it’s wrong-headed to be pursuing the spread of “democracy” in the Mideast, when we should rather be pursuing the spread of liberty.

   — Robert    Feb 6, 03:44 PM    #

2. And we have lost so many of our young men and women for THAT?

   — Dag von Lubitz    Feb 6, 04:39 PM    #

3. I am also a journalist and Kambakhsh’s brother was my colleague. If Kambakhsh would have been sentenced by so call Islamic scholars, then it would have been a slap on the face of democracy and freedom of speech. He deserves to be freed immediately

   — Zabihullah Noori    Feb 7, 02:46 AM    #

4. And we are fighting wars to protect these people from….?... themselves.

   — hawkeye    Feb 7, 08:31 AM    #

5. My understanding is that NATO is fighting the Afghan war to prevent another Mullah Omar from gaining power there and inviting another Osama bin Laden to use the country as a secure base for attacks against its members.

   I share all the other commenters’ sentiments about this disgraceful episode, though.

   — Gustave    Feb 8, 04:53 AM    #

6. Any god who is so weak that he or she or it has to be defended by human violence and abuse and arms is not really all that worthy of worship—perhaps people should switch to a stronger more self confident god capable of defending himself without calling for help from armed humans—George Bernard Shaw, 80 years ago, paraphrased.

   — Richard Tabor Greene    Feb 9, 12:49 AM    #

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