Sayed Pervez Kambaksh Update. “Afghanistan: Student gets 20-year term for downloading rights material,” from AdnKronos International, October 21:
Kabul, 21 Oct. (AKI) – A journalism student who downloaded and distributed an article on women’s rights from the Internet has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Afghanistan.
Seyyed Parwiz Kambakhsh, arrested a year ago, was sentenced to death by a court in Balkh. But a Kabul appeals court on Tuesday reduced the sentence to 20 years in prison.
“This is an unjust sentence,” defence lawyer, Mohammad Afzal Nourestani, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
“We will appeal to the Supreme Court. During the hearing they did not consider that my client is not the author of the article, that it was downloaded from an Iranian site and he had to ask several friends to read it.”
During the appeals process, Parwiz Kambakhsh was tortured and mistreated.
“My client says he was tortured in Balkh prison and during interrogation was forced to admit to being the author of the article that appeared to be the work of an Iranian blogger.”
On 28 November Seyyed Parwiz Kambakhsh will receive the Information, Safety & Freedom watchdog’s Press Freedom award in Siena.
Last year the award was given to Iranian Kurdish journalists, Adnan Hassanpour and Hiwa Boutimar, both of whom have been sentenced to death by an Iranian court.