Pervez Kambaksh Still Faces Death in Afghanistan on Charges of ‘Blasphemy’, and Has Difficulty Finding a Lawyer to Represent Him
Photo of Perves Kambaksh courtesy of The Independent
THE INDEPENDENT: Pervez Kambaksh, the Afghan student sentenced to death after being accused of downloading internet reports on women's rights, yesterday pleaded innocent to charges of blasphemy. He told an appeal court in Kabul that he had been tortured into confessing.

Mr Kambaksh, 24, vehemently denied that he had been responsible for producing anti-Islamic literature. He insisted the prosecution had been motivated by personal malice of two members of staff and their student supporters at the university in Balkh, where he was studying journalism.

He was convicted in proceedings behind closed doors in a trial which he said had lasted just four minutes and where he had been denied legal representation.

Yesterday, in the first public hearing of the case, the prosecution claimed that Mr Kambaksh had disrupted classes at the university by asking questions about women's rights under Islam. It also said he distributed an article on the subject after writing an additional three paragraphs including the phrase "This is the real face of Islam ... The prophet Mohamad wrote verses of the holy Koran just for his own benefit."

In a highly emotional statement, Mr Kambaksh said: "I'm Muslim and I would never let myself write such an article. These accusations are nonsense, [they] come from two professors and other students because of private hostilities against me. I was tortured by the intelligence service in Balkh province and they made me confess that I wrote three paragraphs in this article."

Mr Kambaksh represented himself because his family are having difficulties finding a lawyer to represent him after threats by fundamentalist groups that anyone taking on the job would be killed. I Was Tortured to Confess, Pervez Tells Appeal Court >>> By Kim Sengupta | May 19, 2008

Galloway audio on Afghanistan: ‘Afghanistan to Execute Student for Blasphemy’ >>>

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE PERVEZ KAMBAKSH HERE

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Afghanistan: Sayed Pervez Kambaksh
THE INDEPENDENT: The idea that any individual in any country should face execution for downloading information from the internet is as abhorrent as it is incomprehensible. That this should be happening in a nation whose government benefits from the military and financial support of Western countries, Britain included, should give us great pause for thought. Pervez Kabaksh [sic], 23, is a student at an Afghan university and a journalist. He was arrested last year after downloading material about the role of women in Islamic societies. We can well imagine that the material was not flattering to, or particularly consonant with, some of the precepts of Islam. Mr Kambaksh was charged, and last week convicted, of blasphemy. He had pleaded not guilty.

The United Nations criticised the conduct of the trial, in which Mr Kambaksh had no legal representation. There were hopes that the upper house of the Afghan legislature would at least commute the death sentence. In the event, however, the Senate leader signed his approval without calling a vote.

The Afghan government says the judgment is not final. This is why it is vital that anyone who values free speech should join the campaign to reverse this quite unwarranted sentence. When Hamid Karzai became President of Afghanistan, it was on a platform that included religious tolerance, in stark contrast to the rule of the routed Taliban.

It is surely worth asking what sort of a country Afghanistan is now becoming, if girls who go want to go to school risk being killed and young men are threatened with death for downloading information from the internet. [Source: Leading article: The price of free speech]

THE INDEPENDENT:
How he was sentenced to die

THE INDEPENDENT:
Save Pervez! Global protests to save Afghan student from death sentence: Worldwide outrage over Afghan sentenced to death for reading article on women's rights. Join the Independent campaign now

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Afganistán: La mordaza de Sayed
ELPAÍS: En la cárcel de Bakh, al norte de Afganistán, no se puede leer ni escribir. Algunos días, tampoco se desayuna ni se cena. Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, un estudiante de periodismo de 23 años, lleva tres meses entre rejas. Comparte una pequeña celda con otros 30 presos que cumplen penas por robo, asesinato o violación. Él está allí por blasfemia. Y está condenado a muerte.

Su hermano, Yaqub Ibrahimi, es periodista. Va a verlo una vez a la semana. A Sayed Parwez se le acusa de insultar al profeta Mahoma por distribuir entre sus compañeros de clase un artículo, descargado de un blog en Internet, en el que se considera discriminatorio que el Corán permita al hombre tener cuatro esposas, y a la mujer sólo un marido. "En Afganistán cualquier cosa puede ser blasfemia, sobre todo lo que tiene que ver con los derechos humanos", cuenta por teléfono Yaqub. Ahora está en Kabul, la capital, haciendo todo tipo de gestiones para que el caso se transfiera al Tribunal Supremo y poder así apelar la sentencia. La mordaza de Sayed: El hermano del periodista afgano condenado a muerte por blasfemia asegura que los 'mulás' le tendieron una trampa >>> De Silvia Blanco

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Sign Petition Online
The Independent is running an online petition to save the young Afghan, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who has been sentenced to death in Afghanistan simply for downloading material on women’s rights!

We really need to do all we can to save this young man. He deserves OUR help. The least we can do is sign the online petition. Please take a minute of your time to sign this most urgent petition:

Save Sayed Pervez Kambaksh

Sincerely

Mark

Save Pervez! Global Protests to Save Afghan Student from Death Sentence
THE INDEPENDENT: Worldwide outrage over Afghan sentenced to death for reading article on women's rights. Join the Independent campaign now

Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, has been inundated with appeals to save the life of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the student journalist sentenced to death after being accused of downloading an internet report on women's rights.

While international protests mounted over the affair, with the British Government saying it had already raised its concerns, hundreds of people marched through the capital, Kabul, demanding Mr Kambaksh's release.

A petition launched yesterday by The Independent to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh had attracted more than 13,500 signatories by last night, and a number of support groups have been set up on the social networking site Facebook with more than 400 joining one group alone.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, was arrested, tried and convicted by a religious court, in what his friends and family say was a secret session without being allowed legal representation.

The United Nations, human rights groups, journalists' organisations and diplomats urged Mr Karzai's government to quash the death sentence and release him.

Instead, on Wednesday, the Afghan senate passed a motion confirming the death sentence. The MP who proposed the ruling condemning Mr Kambaksh was Sibghatullah Mojadedi, a key ally of Mr Karzai. Save Pervez! Global protests to save Afghan student from death sentence >>> By Kim Sengupta, Jerome Starkey in Kabul, Anne Penketh and Ben Russell

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Afghan Sentenced to Death for Reading about Women’s Rights
Photo of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh courtesy of The Independent
THE INDEPENDENT: 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. Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights >>> By Kim Sengupta

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)