In January, Afghan student-writer Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh was sentenced to death for insulting Islam.
The 23 year-old student and writer downloaded an anti-Islamic report from the internet in 2007 relating to the role of women in Islamic societies and handed copies out to his friends.
For this, an Afghan court sentenced him to death for the crime of blasphemy!
But, after the international uproar against the death sentence, Afghan officials agreed to give Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh a hearing in court to appeal the charges against him.
Today Bloggasm reported that young Afghan journalist, Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, was back in court.
Reuters reported this:
An Afghan journalist sentenced to death on blasphemy charge pleaded not guilty in an appeal hearing on Sunday.
Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, a reporter with the Jahan-e Now daily was sentenced in January after having been arrested three months ago in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
In an open court appeal hearing in Kabul, Kambakhsh who is also a university student in Mazar-i-Sharif, rejected accusations from some of his classmates and teachers, that he had insulted Islam and the Koran and had distributed an article which said Prophet Mohammad had ignored the rights of women.
“As a Muslim …, I never allow myself to do such a thing. These are totally lies,” he told the court, adding his trial in Mazar-i-Sharif had been “quick and unjust”.
The Kabul court gave him a week to present his defence statement against the primary provincial court’s ruling and to find a defence lawyer.
Well at least they gave Kambakhsh a week(?)
More… Kambakhsh said he was tortured into his confession.
Previously:
Afghan Journalist Sentenced to Death On “Blasphemy” Charges
Afghan Journalists Protest Young Writer’s Death Sentence
Afghan Senate Approves Blasphemy Death of Youth Journalist