Posts Tagged ‘Islamic blasphemy’

Afghan student in torture claim

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

– I wrote about this case previously back on February 1st, 2008.   I said then, and remind you now, that this is the government we (the US) put into power and are supporting in Afghanistan.

= = = = =

An Afghan student journalist who was sentenced to death for blasphemy has told an appeals court that he confessed after being tortured.

Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh was convicted in January of insulting Islam.

But at the appeals court in Kabul the 24-year-old insisted he was innocent of all the charges.

He said he was tortured into confessing that he had disrupted university classes by asking questions about women’s rights under Islam.

He was also convicted of distributing an article on the same subject, and adding three additional paragraphs.

He told the crowded, hour-long appeal hearing: “As a Muslim … I never allow myself to do such a thing. These are totally lies.”

Kambakhsh’s death sentence was handed down during a closed-door trial, which drew condemnation from parts of the international community.

More…

Sentenced to die for downloading report on women

Friday, February 1st, 2008

– Remember, this is the government we (the US) put into power and are supporting in Afghanistan.

= = = = = = =

A young man, a journalism student, 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 Taleban 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 the erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan.

He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which said Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Muhammad.

Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University in Mazari Sharif, capital of Balkh province, 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 friends and family – legal representation and sentenced to death.

More…