Afghan court backs prison term for blasphemy

The Supreme Court in Afghanistan has upheld a 20-year prison sentence for an Afghan university student journalist accused of blasphemy. The case has alarmed news media and rights organizations in the country and abroad. The student's family and lawyers said Wednesday that they had learned only recently about the court decision, which was made in secret on Feb. 12, and they called the procedure illegal. The student, Parwiz Kambakhsh, 24, from northern Afghanistan, was arrested in 2007 and sentenced to death for blasphemy after accusations that he had written and distributed an article about the role of women in Islam. Mr. Kambakhsh has denied having written the article and said he had downloaded it from the Internet. His family and lawyers say he has been denied a fair trial. In 2008, an appeals court in Kabul commuted the death sentence to 20 years' imprisonment, a decision that was upheld by a tribunal of the Supreme Court last month. "Unfortunately the Supreme Court has confirmed the 20-year prison sentence for my brother," said Yaqoub Ibrahimi, who is Mr. Kambakhsh's brother. "We did not expect it at all." The decision came to light only when the attorney general's office issued orders to the northern province of Balkh to enforce the decision, Afzal Nooristani, a defense lawyer for Mr. Kambakhsh, said in a telephone interview. "I was not allowed to talk with the judges and officials, which is a complete violation of law," he said. Judges at the Supreme Court were reluctant to comment on the case, except to say that Ghulam Nabi Nawaie, the lead judge of the tribunal that made the decision, was in India for medical treatment. Enayatullah Kamal, the deputy attorney general, confirmed that his office had been notified of the decision, but he said Mr. Kambakhsh still had the right to appeal the tribunal's decision. The case has been watched keenly by the independent Afghan news media, which have felt growing pressure from government, political and religious circles. Journalists and news organizations flourished in the early post-Taliban years under President Hamid Karzai, but have increasingly suffered from threats and attacks from the Taliban and pressure from the government and religious conservatives. An Afghan journalist, Javed Ahmad, 23, who worked for the Canadian broadcaster CTV, was gunned down Tuesday evening in the center of the southern city of Kandahar, the second killing of an Afghan journalist in southern Afghanistan in nine months. Abdul Samad Rohani, a journalist in Helmand Province, was shot dead last year, in a killing thought to be connected to his investigation of police involvement in the drug trade. Three other well-established journalists have left Kandahar in recent months after receiving threats from Taliban insurgents over their coverage of events. Another journalist, Ghows Zalmai, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for blasphemy after publishing a Dari translation of the Koran that hard-line clerics disputed, said Human Rights Watch, based in New York. Western diplomats and human rights organizations have expressed concern that despite Mr. Karzai's assurances of press freedom and freedom of speech, journalists and civilians are under an increasing threat from both insurgents and conservative religious clerics allied with the government. Mr. Karzai, his critics say, is reluctant to move against the clerics in an election year. Mr. Kambakhsh's brother and the lawyer, Mr. Nooristani, said they were dismayed because they had seen the Supreme Court as their last resort. Mr. Kambakhsh was originally sentenced after a trial lasting only minutes in which he was not allowed to defend himself. In the appeals court, an important student witness against him retracted his statement, but was ignored. "This is the tragic level of justice in Afghanistan today," Mr. Ibrahimi, the brother, said in a statement. "It is just a make-believe system of justice and humanitarianism. The reality is that the Afghan government and judiciary, although supported by the U.S., the U.N., the E.U. and other democracies worldwide, is morally bankrupt." Human Rights Watch urged the Afghan president to pardon Mr. Kambakhsh. "The Supreme Court represented the last hope that Parwiz Kambakhsh would receive a fair hearing, but once again justice was denied," said Brad Adams, the organization's Asia director. "Kambakhsh has committed no crime."