AP Interview: Afghan journalist demands justice after death sentence for insulting Islam
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PUL-E CHARKHI, Afghanistan: The prison uniform Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh wears is emblazoned with crudely painted black scales of justice, but the young journalist insists on the eve of his appeal that he has yet to see justice done.
A court found Kambakhsh, 24, guilty on Jan. 22 of distributing an article that questioned the Muslim practice of polygamy. It handed him the maximum sentence on the charge of insulting Islam — death.
The case highlights the continued virulence of conservative religious attitudes in post-Taliban Afghanistan as well as the shortcomings of its rudimentary justice system.
In an interview Saturday with The Associated Press in his cell at Pul-e Charkhi prison east of Kabul, Kambakhsh denied all the charges.
"I didn't write this article. I didn't print it. I didn't distribute it. I reject these accusations," Kambakhsh said. "I am a scapegoat in some political game."
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Afghan media have flourished since the fall of the hardline Taliban regime following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Newspapers and TV and radio stations have opened across the country.
But journalists face threats and violence for news stories that criticize government leaders, warlords and religious clerics or challenge their often authoritarian views.
Kambakhsh had been studying journalism at Balkh University in Mazar-i-Sharif and writing for local newspapers.
Last fall, Afghan intelligence service agents began investigating his activities. The intelligence service called his brother, who is also a journalist, and told him to bring Kambakhsh to their office.
Kambakhsh waited five hours on the afternoon of Oct. 27 to meet the head of the local intelligence service. He never showed up.
When Kambakhsh asked if he could go home, he says he was told, "As of today, you are under arrest. You cannot leave."
Three months later, he was taken for trial. The only people with him in the courtroom in Mazar-i-Sharif were three judges, a court scribe and the prosecutor. Kambakhsh said he had no defense lawyer, and only three or four minutes to defend himself.
"It was not enough time for this complicated matter. I demanded more time, but they said it's very late," he said, recalling that the hearing started at about 4 p.m. — well after most government offices close for the day.
The judges found him guilty of handing out a report he printed off the Internet to fellow journalism students. The article asked why under Islam men can have four wives but women cannot have multiple husbands.
Kambakhsh said the article accused Islam of violating women's rights, but he was hesitant to discuss details. He insisted he had no knowledge of it until government officials accused him.
The verdict sparked an international outcry, with a number of organizations demanding 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."
Abdul Malik Kamawi, a spokesman for the Supreme Court, said Kambakhsh's case will go before an appeals court in the capital on Sunday.
Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the New York-based rights group Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed the transfer of the case to Kabul and the defendant's access to legal counsel.
He said CPJ was concerned that Kambakhsh may have been targeted because his brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, had written about human rights violations and local politics for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, an organization that trains Afghan journalists.
He hopes Kambakhsh will be acquitted in Sunday's appeal, but added "we fear for his safety in Afghanistan if he is given his freedom."
Ibrahimi said the family approached more than 10 lawyers who were initially willing to take on the case but later changed their minds. He said the lawyer they found had not yet seen the case file.
A week after Kambakhsh was sentenced, lawmakers in the upper house of Parliament lauded the verdict. Conservative clerics and tribal elders have demanded that the government support the court's decision.
Asked about the case in February, President Hamid Karzai gave a guarded response. "I can assure you that at the end of the day ... justice will be done in the right way."
Kambakhsh was transferred in a 14-hour car ride from a prison in Mazar-i-Sharif to Pul-e Charkhi in March. Prison officials said he was placed in a newly built wing for drug offenders — which is not officially open and has only a handful of prisoners — for fear other inmates might harm him.
He tries to keep up his spirits in his lonely cell by singing and reciting Persian poetry. He says he is healthy and well-treated and allowed outside his room for one hour of sunshine each day. At midday, enough light enters his room for him to read books about Afghan and world history.
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