[danton]

For update on his situation see my post below.

You would think this story an April fools joke but it isn't. Two islamic courts in Afghanistan have sentenced this man to death for the unforgivable crime of printing something off the internet which said fundamentalists have misinterpreted womens rights from the the Koran.

Bonkers without even taking into account he didn't write it. The Independent in the UK has started a petition - link below. Takes two seconds. The Teddy bear incident and now this - how can we all get along when so many people place religion over humanity. The irony is of course that the religous will tell you it's all about humanity. Well not from where i'm sitting it isn't.

Link for signing the petition
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sign-our-petitionbrbr-we-the-undersigned-urge-the-uk-foreign-office-to-put-all-possible-pressure-on-the-afghan-government-to-prevent-the-execution-of-sayed-pervez-kambaksh-brbr-775954.html

Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights

A young man, a student of journalism, 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 Taliban 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 erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University 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 his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

For the rest go to this link
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sentenced-to-death-afghan-who-dared-to-read-about-womens-rights-775972.html

 

[HNCS]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

I was just about to create a thread about this as well. some more articles.

Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights

By Kim Sengupta
Thursday, 31 January 2008

A young man, a student of journalism, 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 Taliban 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 erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University 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 his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

The Independent is launching a campaign today to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. The UN, human rights groups, journalists' organisations and Western diplomats have urged Mr Karzai's government to intervene and free him. But the Afghan Senate passed a motion yesterday confirming the death sentence.

The MP who proposed the ruling condemning Mr Kambaksh was Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a key ally of Mr Karzai. The Senate also attacked the international community for putting pressure on the Afghan government and urged Mr Karzai not to be influenced by outside un-Islamic views.

The case of Mr Kambaksh, who also worked a s reporter for the Jahan-i-Naw (New World) newspaper, is seen in Afghanistan as yet another chapter in the escalation in the confrontation between Afghanistan and the West.

It comes in the wake of Mr Karzai accusing the British of actually worsening the situation in Helmand province by their actions and his subsequent blocking of the appointment of Lord Ashdown as the UN envoy and expelling a British and an Irish diplomat.

Demonstrations, organised by clerics, against the alleged foreign interference have been held in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where Mr Kambaksh was arrested. Aminuddin Muzafari, the first secretary of the houses of parliament, said: "People should realise that as we are representatives of an Islamic country therefore we can never tolerate insults to reverences of Islamic religion."

At a gathering in Takhar province, Maulavi Ghulam Rabbani Rahmani, the heads of the Ulema council, said: "We want the government and the courts to execute the court verdict on Kambaksh as soon as possible." In Parwan province, another senior cleric, Maulavi Muhammad Asif, said: "This decision is for disrespecting the holy Koran and the government should enforce the decision before it came under more pressure from foreigners."

UK officials say they are particularly concerned about such draconian action being taken against a journalist. The Foreign Office and Department for International Development has donated large sums to the training of media workers in the country. The Government funds the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in the Helmand capital, Lashkar Gar.

Mr Kambaksh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, is also a journalist and has written articles for IWPR in which he accused senior public figures, including an MP, of atrocities, including murders. He said: "Of course we are all very worried about my brother. What has happened to him is very unjust. He has not committed blasphemy and he was not even allowed to have a legal defence. and what took place was a secret trial."

Qayoum Baabak, the editor of Jahan-i-Naw, said a senior prosecutor in Mazar-i-Sharif, Hafiz Khaliqyar, had warned journalists that they would be punished if they protested against the death sentence passed on Mr Kambaksh.

Jean MacKenzie, country director for IWPR, said: "We feel very strongly that this is designed to put pressure on Pervez's brother, Yaqub, who has done some of the hardest-hitting pieces outlining abuses by some very powerful commanders."

Rahimullah Samander, the president of the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association, said: "This is unfair, this is illegal. He just printed a copy of something and looked at it and read it. How can we believe in this 'democracy' if we can't even read, we can't even study? We are asking Mr Karzai to quash the death sentence before it is too late."

The circumstances surrounding the conviction of Mr Kambaksh are also being viewed as a further attempt to claw back the rights gained by women since the overthrow of the Taliban. The most prominent female MP, Malalai Joya, has been suspended after criticising her male colleagues.

Under the Afghan constitution, say legal experts, Mr Kambaksh has the right to appeal to the country's supreme court. Some senior clerics maintain, however, that since he has been convicted under religious laws, the supreme court should not bring secular interpretations to the case.

Mr Karzai has the right to intervene and pardon Mr Kambaksh. However, even if he is freed, it would be hard for the student to escape retribution in a country where fundamentalists and warlords are increasingly in the ascendancy.

How you can save Pervez

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh's imminent execution is an affront to civilised values. It is not, however, a foregone conclusion. If enough international pressure is brought to bear on President Karzai's government, his sentence may yet be overturned. Add your weight to the campaign by urging the Foreign Office to demand that his life be spared. Sign our e-petition at www.independent.co.uk/petition

Leading article: The price of free speech

Thursday, 31 January 2008


The idea that any individual in any country should face execution for downloading information from the internet is as abhorrent as it is incomprehensible. That this should be happening in a nation whose government benefits from the military and financial support of Western countries, Britain included, should give us great pause for thought. Pervez Kabaksh, 23, is a student at an Afghan university and a journalist. He was arrested last year after downloading material about the role of women in Islamic societies. We can well imagine that the material was not flattering to, or particularly consonant with, some of the precepts of Islam. Mr Kambaksh was charged, and last week convicted, of blasphemy. He had pleaded not guilty.


The United Nations criticised the conduct of the trial, in which Mr Kambaksh had no legal representation. There were hopes that the upper house of the Afghan legislature would at least commute the death sentence. In the event, however, the Senate leader signed his approval without calling a vote.

The Afghan government says the judgment is not final. This is why it is vital that anyone who values free speech should join the campaign to reverse this quite unwarranted sentence. When Hamid Karzai became President of Afghanistan, it was on a platform that included religious tolerance, in stark contrast to the rule of the routed Taliban.

It is surely worth asking what sort of a country Afghanistan is now becoming, if girls who go want to go to school risk being killed and young men are threatened with death for downloading information from the internet.

Afghan protest: 'He just shared an article with friends. What's the problem?'

By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Friday, 1 February 2008


One the streets of the Afghan capital last night, public opinion on the fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh was divided. Residents of Kabul are invariably more secular than people in rural areas but, even so, they have mixed views on whether Mr Kambaksh deserves to die.


Madina, a 17-year-old journalism student at Kabul University, said that his execution would represent a terrifying return to Taliban-style injustice, and urged the courts to pardon her fellow student.

She said: "They should forgive him. He is young. He is a student. He just printed something off the internet – he should not lose his life. We should not go back to the Taliban times. We should think of something new, we should engage with him, we should talk to him and listen to his opinion."

Metra Khonari, a 20-year-old flight attendant, said the case offered a chance to overhaul the legal system. "In a free country, everyone should have the right to criticise religion," she said. "We shouldn't go backwards. Conservative people should not be allowed to victimise the young. It was not a fair trial, the court was not free and he didn't have a proper defence." Under the oppressive Taliban regime Ms Khonari would have been banned from working. She added: "We should reform our justice system because most of the judges have been educated in madrassas. They have not had a proper, modern education."

Mr Kambaksh's plight has been widely reported in the Afghan media, and everyone you meet seems to have an opinion.

Najibullah, a 25-year-old Kabul shopkeeper, said: "He just shared an article with his friends. He didn't write it, so what's the problem?"

Sale Mohammed, a 19-year-old student, said it was up to human rights groups to intervene. "I really disapprove of the court's decision," he added. "He just wanted to show his friends what he had found in a report. I want the human rights commission to help us to release him."

Mir Ahmadi Joyinda, an Afghan MP, said: "It is unacceptable and unbelievable. We have laws about the media but he did not have a fair trial. We want him released."

But there were also those, young and old, who approved of the sharia court's ruling. Abdul Wasi Tokhi, an 18-year-old student at the American University in Kabul, called for a swift execution. He said: "The guy should be hanged. He was making fun of Islam's rules and regulations. He was making fun of the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him. You cannot criticise any principles which have been approved by sharia. It is the words of the Prophet."

Qari Imam Bakhsh, a Muslim cleric, agreed, saying: "I think he is not a Muslim. A Muslim would not make this kind of mistake. He should be punished so that others can learn from him."

 

[TMJordan]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

WTF is wrong with these people and there piece of shit religion.

Religion is the cause of all things bad in the world. (money to a lesser extent)

 

[~*BGT*~]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

Thank God I don't live in that kind of country.

 

[Corey Feldman]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

Horrible part of the world, animals behave better than these ppl.

*sent*

 

[Drunken]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

Sharia law is repulsive. Women can receive the death penalty for the "crime" of being ****d in certain sharia nations.

Interestingly, current birth rate trends suggest France (and elsewhere in Europe) will be a majority muslim country by 2050. Dunno if the majority of Islam followers will practice a secularized form of Islamic traditions and values without dogma by then.

 

[I♥[email protected]!c]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

I signed it.
Most of fucking religions and their "rules" get on my fucking nerves. I'm glad I I've never been brainwashed and believed in any religion! :smoke:

 

[Black Adam]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

This what Religion does for Society. Not only Islam but Christianity also went through the same dark phases that Islam is going through.

 

[Young Boss]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

they're always sentencing people to death for "crimes" in this area of the world.

And as everyone is saying, religion does take a lil blame. But the majority of the balme should go on these people that take religion too far, do anyhting in the name of religion, or take the words in their holy book too literal.

People need to use some common sense, and realize that those books were written a LONG time ago. Times have changed, and every lil thing in those books does not need to be applied and enforced today. Religion didn't sentences this kid to death. SOMEONE snitched on him, and another PERSON sentenced him to death. PEOPLE need to take responsibility, and not use religion as a excuse or reason. Religion does NOT kill people. PEOPLE kill PEOPLE in the name of religion. There is a difference.

Just my opinion.

 

[danton]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

they're always sentencing people to death for "crimes" in this area of the world.

And as everyone is saying, religion does take a lil blame. But the majority of the balme should go on these people that take religion too far, do anyhting in the name of religion, or take the words in their holy book too literal.

People need to use some common sense, and realize that those books were written a LONG time ago. Times have changed, and every lil thing in those books does not need to be applied and enforced today. Religion didn't sentences this kid to death. SOMEONE snitched on him, and another PERSON sentenced him to death. PEOPLE need to take responsibility, and not use religion as a excuse or reason. Religion does NOT kill people. PEOPLE kill PEOPLE in the name of religion. There is a difference.

Just my opinion.

Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things -- that takes religion.
-- Steven Weinberg, in a dialog on religion with other scientists, 1999, quoted from "The Constitution Guarantees Freedom From Religion" an open letter to US Vice-Presidential candidate Senator Joseph Lieberman, issued by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on August 28, 2000

And just because I like this quote
If there is a God that has special plans for humans, then He has taken very great pains to hide His concern for us. To me it would seem impolite if not impious to bother such a God with our prayers.
-- Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory
In other words god wouldn't give a flying F'%K if Sayed printed these things

 

[Psichogauchovna]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

oh dear this is just too sad.
Signed the petition.

 

[Young Boss]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things -- that takes religion.
-- Steven Weinberg, in a dialog on religion with other scientists, 1999, quoted from "The Constitution Guarantees Freedom From Religion" an open letter to US Vice-Presidential candidate Senator Joseph Lieberman, issued by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on August 28, 2000

And just because I like this quote
If there is a God that has special plans for humans, then He has taken very great pains to hide His concern for us. To me it would seem impolite if not impious to bother such a God with our prayers.
-- Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory
In other words god wouldn't give a flying F'%K if Sayed printed these things

i agree. i don't think God cares if he printed and distrubted the article or w/e. but i guess those are the rules that they play by.

 

[Sunset of Age]

Re: Sentenced to Death - sign the petition for Sayed Prevez in Afghanistan

Signed, of course! This is a true atrocity.

"Thank God I am an Atheist..." :angel:

 

[danton]

Lifeline for Pervez: Afghan Senate withdraws demand for death sentence

Saturday, 2 February 2008


In a dramatic volte-face, the Afghan Senate has withdrawn its confirmation of a death sentence on Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the student convicted of blasphemy for downloading a report on women's rights from the internet.


The move follows widespread international protests and appeals to the President, Hamid Karzai, after the case was highlighted by The Independent and more than 38,000 readers signed our petition to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. In Britain, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and the shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, backed the campaign, and there have been demonstrations in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The first ruling by the Senate supporting the death sentence on Mr Kambaksh by a religious court in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country, was proposed by Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a key ally of President Karzai, and was seen as a severe blow to the 23-year-old journalism student's chances of avoiding execution. The new stance, in which the Senate calls its previous decision "a technical mistake", significantly raises hopes that he will eventually be freed.

Mr Kambaksh's family and friends had complained that he was not allowed legal representation at his trial, which was held in secret. Fundamentalist Muslim clerics say he should not have access to the normal right of appeal under the state because he was convicted of the religious crime of blasphemy. The Senate statement yesterday explicitly recognised that the student should have the right to a defence lawyer as well as the right to appeal.

The Senate statement, read out by Aminuddin Muzafari, secretary to the upper house, said: "The position of the upper house regarding distributing anti-Islamic articles, via an Iranian website, was that the upper house approved of the prosecution of such acts by the judiciary. The nature of the sentence, considering the judiciary's independence, would be up to the court itself.

"The upper house respects the rights of the accused, such as the right to have a defence lawyer, the right of appeal and other legal rights. But approval of the death sentence, in the statement published recently from the address of the upper house, was a technical mistake."

Mr Mojaddedi, who has been heavily criticised for proposing the ruling backing the execution, said: "I accept that justice is independent and only the courts are competent to issue such a ruling."

Mr Kambaksh can now petition the court of appeal against both his conviction and sentence, and, afterwards, the supreme court. If he fails there, he can appeal directly to Mr Karzai – who has been inundated with emails about the case – for a pardon. Mr Kambaksh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, welcomed the new position adopted by the Senate. He added, however, that he might have difficulties finding lawyers to present the case at the appeal court after warnings from fundamentalist groups against people "allying themselves with the apostate". He said the only realistic chance of his brother being freed might be the personal intervention of Mr Karzai.

Ershad Ahmadi, a senior aide to Mr Karzai, said the President was "keeping a close eye on the case". But he stressed it was a "long, difficult and complicated legal process".

Mr Ahmadi added: "The decision by the initial court will be reviewed by a higher court and that decision will then be scrutinised by the supreme court. If they uphold the death sentence, the President can send the verdict back to the supreme court for them to reconsider. But if they stand by their decision the President still has the authority to pardon him."

Selim Mohammed Nasruddin, an analyst of the Afghan legal system, said the upper house had "taken a really dangerous step in saying this journalist should be killed – it put tremendous pressure on the appeal courts. What they have done now makes it easier for the judges to commute the death sentence.

"It also makes it politically easier for Mr Karzai to free this man if he wants to. Those who are progressive in this country are glad this has happened. What is very worrying is that it took pressure from outside the country for the upper house to rectify this error."

The media campaign group, Reporters Without Borders, which has campaigned on behalf of Mr Kambaksh, said the Senate's statement was a step in the right direction. "We have seen that there is support for the young journalist," a spokesman added. "The authorities must now take the necessary measures, which include transferring the case to Kabul so that it can be dealt with in normal conditions.

"The safety of Kambaksh and his family must also be ensured, as the death threats against them have been increasing. And we urge foreign governments to rally to his defence." A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are keenly watching all developments. The Foreign Secretary had made it very clear that we are firm in our belief that freedom of expression is fundamental to a democratic society."

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: "This is hugely welcome and I hope it will not be long before this appalling judgment is reversed. The international community must continue to make it clear that Afghanistan cannot cast aside basic principles of justice and human rights."

HOW YOU CAN SAVE PERVEZ

More than 38,000 readers of The Independent have now joined the campaign to save Sayed Pervez Kambaksh - and yesterday's breakthrough shows the impact this petition has had. But the student's fate is by no means decided.

 

[norwood_10]

Religion can get fucked. Who needs it?? NO ONE.

 

[buddyholly]

If it was the Taliban, I could understand. But this is the new ''free'' Afghanistan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!