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"Prosecutor Ahmad Khan Ayar told the appeals court that the primary court sentence [of death] was "the right decision" according to Islamic law and the Afghan Constitution."
Yes, Afghanistan, where the constitution stipulates that "no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam" (Chapter 1, Article 3). How many U.S. policymakers didn't even see this one coming?
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh Update. "Afghan Journalist Charged With Insulting Islam Appeals Death Sentence," from the Associated Press, May 18:
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for insulting Islam denied the charges before an appeals court Sunday, saying he only confessed to questioning the religion's treatment of women because he was tortured.
Back in February, an Afghan government official said Kambakhsh would not be executed. We'll see about that.
During an hour-long hearing, a judge read aloud a transcript of the Jan. 22 proceedings against 24-year-old Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh at the primary court in northern Balkh province.
It was the first time the public and the media heard full details from the closed-door trial, which highlights the influence of conservative religious attitudes in post-Taliban Afghanistan's still-nascent justice system.
Kambakhsh was studying journalism at Balkh University in Mazar-i-Sharif and writing for local newspapers when he was arrested Oct. 27.
The transcript said Kambakhsh disrupted classes at the university by asking questions about women's rights under Islam. It also said he distributed an article about the subject and wrote an additional three paragraphs for the piece.
The only people with him in the courtroom in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif were three judges, a court scribe and the prosecutor. Kambakhsh said he had no defense lawyer, and only three minutes to defend himself.
He was transferred to Pul-e Charkhi prison on March 27, and his case was moved to Kabul, where human rights groups believed he would have a fair trial.
On Sunday, Kambakhsh spoke in the court in Kabul, again without a defense lawyer.
"I'm Muslim, and I would never let myself write such an article. All these accusations are nonsense," he said during an emotional 15-minute statement.
"These accusations 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."
According to the transcript from the Balkh court proceedings, the prosecutor said Kambakhsh admitted to writing three paragraphs of the article and had initialed them.
He also was accused of writing, "This is the real face of Islam ... The prophet Mohammad wrote verses of the holy Quran just for his own benefit."
Prosecutor Ahmad Khan Ayar told the appeals court that the primary court sentence was "the right decision" according to Islamic law and the Afghan Constitution.
"Kambakhsh has insulted Islam by writing these paragraphs, and he has insulted the Prophet Muhammad," Ayar said. "I ask the appeals court today to uphold the decision of the primary court of Balkh and sentence him to death."
A number of rights groups have demanded that the case be annulled and Kambakhsh set free. A U.S. State Department spokesman expressed concern that Kambakhsh was sentenced to death for "basically practicing his profession."
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was concerned that Kambakhsh may have been targeted because his brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, had written about human rights violations and local politics.
Posted by Marisol at May 18, 2008 6:53 PM
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Yes, things have changed since the Taliban left.............
Posted by: tanstaafl![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 18, 2008 7:30 PM
You have to wonder why, when we spent so much energy and lives to get rid of the religious fundamentalists, we didn't simply put in a 'separation of church and state' clause.
What is the point in going into these countries if we are not able to reform them properly?
Posted by: madijihadi at May 18, 2008 7:43 PM
Ignorance of the (Islamic) law is no excuse. If we're going to go and 'nation build' in the Islamic world, our government officials had better take a crash course in Koranic justice (injustice) as stipulated in Sharia. So when a new Constitution goes up in an Islamic land which stipulates that it cannot go against Islamic Law, be warned. You had just allowed the Devil in. And you will pay and pay and pay for that mistake of ignorance. See Iraq and Afghanistan as first order case studies.
Posted by: Battle_of_Tours at May 18, 2008 7:49 PM
"He also was accused of writing, "This is the real face of Islam ... The prophet Mohammad wrote verses of the holy Quran just for his own benefit."
No, no, no!
He was quoting Ayesha, from the ahadith!
at May 18, 2008 8:04 PM
If reading the Koran can be considered torture, then it's true.
Let him move to Dubai.
They need p.r. people.
Posted by: profitsbeard at May 18, 2008 9:35 PM
Can anyone say Kangaroo court? The more I read these types of new stories the more sense Hugh Fitzgerald's viewpoint on the Iraq and Afghanistan war makes. How much more secure would the US and Western Europe be if they banned immigration from these cesspools full of anti-Western Islamists? Deporting Adam Gadahn and his ilk to Afghanistan would also be a huge plus. But since American lives are on the line there how about insisting on Attaturk like law void of Sharia?
Posted by: Americantothecore at May 18, 2008 10:04 PM
I'm sure he is lying now, but who could blame him when under threat by such medieval robots. This is what you get with Bush and the kind of knee jerk back slapper clowns who support him. We beat the Taliban and acted like we just beat Nazi Germany. But 6 years later a third of the country is still infested with the Taliban while scum not much better than them run it. Yet these are the same people who bash Jimmy Carter, at least he was consistent about human rights.
Posted by: Dumbo at May 18, 2008 10:18 PM
Kambakhsh disrupted classes at the university by asking questions about women's rights under Islam. It also said he distributed an article about the subject and wrote an additional three paragraphs for the piece.
The article says nothing about any evidence presented, like the actual article with his addition that is claimed he have initialed. Nothing about any witnesses on the outrageous crime against Islam by asking awkward questions in university classes.
Where are the street riots by the moderates protesting this misunderstanding of true Islam?
Devout misunderstanders of Islam in Afghanistan have earlier made it clear that they want no more yielding to the islamophobic infidels in the west like the case of the Christian convert that did escape his righteous punishment, enough is enough.
at May 19, 2008 4:41 AM
I believe I've just been herded into a corner with other various and sundry "knee-jerk back-slapper clown[s]"… as though the assignment of that sobriquet is the final word on why anyone would come down generally on W's side in the argument on the GWOT.
Victor Davis Hanson writes with great sagacity, as usual, on this subject, here…
http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Printable.aspx?GUID=4FD6AEB2-105A-42B5-9F46-85631E9C872E
I suspect that W's most ardent hyper-critics, here and elsewhere, have little or no experience commanding troops in the field. I tend to stick with W because it's a military principle necessary to victory in war. We're all on the same team here, at least that's how it should be. W's in charge now. Not you. Not me.
Given the totality of circumstances he deals with, the breadth and depth of which we cannot be entirely aware, I believe he deserves more respect than the smarty-pants, pedantic arm-chair quarterbacks can muster the humility and grace to offer.
Posted by: undaunted at May 19, 2008 10:13 AM
OK, we're defending a country which imprisons journalists for talking about women's rights, a country which tortures journalists, a country which produces 90% of the world's opiates and therefore poison's hundreds of thousands of people in the West!?
Yes, yes, I understand how Opium is key to this impoverished country, but that is not justification for allowing an economy which is tantamount to murder. Those involved in the drug trade know that their product kills people. We are allowing our soldiers to die in order to protect murderers, torturers, and those who hold an ideology which if allowed to flourish would end press freedom.
We need fresh political thought and leadership for Western society.
Posted by: James Martel at May 19, 2008 12:09 PM
Don't forget; American soldiers died for this.
Posted by: Pelayo at May 19, 2008 5:45 PM
"The transcript said Kambakhsh disrupted classes at the university by asking questions about women's rights under Islam. ""
he now knows all those things infidels have been saying about Islam and Muslim women were true..
Posted by: pulsar182 at May 19, 2008 6:40 PM
"He also was accused of writing, "This is the real face of Islam ... The prophet Mohammad wrote verses of the holy Quran just for his own benefit."
How true! But, no telling the truth in Islam! They'll kill ya for it.
Posted by: darcy at May 20, 2008 9:12 AM
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