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Hopes Diminish for Condemned Afghan Journalist
by
findingDulcinea Staff
The Afghan Senate has issued a statement supporting the death sentence for an Afghan journalist. The condemned man distributed an article deemed “insulting to Islam.”
30-Second Summary
Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh was sentenced to death by an Afghan court for circulating an opinion piece that asked why Muslim women cannot have multiple husbands, since men are allowed more than one wife.
The Afghanistan Senate issued a statement supporting the sentence and further stated it "strongly criticizes those domestic and international organizations which are pressurizing Afghanistan's government and legal authorities when pursuing such people.”
The Afghan National Assembly is made up of two houses: the Wolesi Jirga (the House of the People) and the Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders).
The statement was signed by Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, head of the Meshrano Jirga and a close ally of Afghan President Karzai.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has requested the case be reviewed fairly in the appeals process.
Rahimullah Samandar, who heads Afghanistan's Independent Journalist Association, stated, “This is illegal, this is unjust, it's unfair. It is in accordance with neither Afghan law nor the Afghan Constitution.”
The Afghanistan Senate issued a statement supporting the sentence and further stated it "strongly criticizes those domestic and international organizations which are pressurizing Afghanistan's government and legal authorities when pursuing such people.”
The Afghan National Assembly is made up of two houses: the Wolesi Jirga (the House of the People) and the Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders).
The statement was signed by Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, head of the Meshrano Jirga and a close ally of Afghan President Karzai.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has requested the case be reviewed fairly in the appeals process.
Rahimullah Samandar, who heads Afghanistan's Independent Journalist Association, stated, “This is illegal, this is unjust, it's unfair. It is in accordance with neither Afghan law nor the Afghan Constitution.”
Headline Links: Afghan journalist sentenced to death
Newspaperman Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh distributed to his friends an opinion piece questioning the gender bias in Islamic marital conventions. Kaambakhsh was sentenced to death by an Afghan court for circulating the article which was deemed “insulting to Islam.”
Source: The Daily Telegraph
The Afghanistan Senate issued a statement which reads, "The Meshrano Jirga endorses the Balkh primary court's verdict on sentencing to death Sayed Perwez Kambakhsh who has been sentenced over insulting Islam and misinterpretation of Koran verses.”
Source: AFP
Reactions: The UN, Afghanistan's Independent Journalist Association and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) issued a statement in which it stated that it was concerned about the recent developments in the case and requested the case be reviewed properly in the appeal’s process.
Source: The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
On Jan. 23, Rahimullah Samandar, who heads Afghanistan's Independent Journalist Association, spoke to Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. "The Afghan Independent Journalists Association, and ... the Committee to Protect Afghan Journalists ... both organizations, strongly condemn this decree. This is illegal, this is unjust, it's unfair. It is in accordance with neither Afghan law nor the Afghan Constitution,” Samandar stated.
Source: Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting asserts that the sentence has been issued to punish the reporter’s brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, who has published articles on human rights abuses in Afghanistan. In an interview with the accused, Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh told IWPR, “I was held in a small room which was very dirty. I was held in that room for eight days, and the security guys were constantly coming to see me. They interrogated me several times a day, and told me they were going to hang me. They told me to prepare myself for death … On the eighth day, the NDS officer came with a piece of paper in his hand. He told me to write that I had downloaded the document from the Internet and that I had added several sentences to it. They told me that if I wrote this, they would release me.”
Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Reference: The Afghanistan National Assembly
The Afghan National Assembly is made up of two houses: the Wolesi Jirga (the House of the People) and the Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders). The Meshrano Jirga issued the statement supporting the death sentence of Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh.
Source: The official Web site for the Office of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
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