Afghan Penlog demanding immediate release of Parwiz Kambakhsh

Press release

On October 27 Parwez Kambakhsh, 23 year-old, was arrested and put in jail for downloading from the Internet and distributing to friends an article about the Prophet Mohammed.
Similarly, today a local court in Mazar-e Sharif, north of Afghanistan, passed a death sentence for alleged blasphemy against Sayed Parwiz Kambakh, a young journalist.

The trial was held behind closed doors, without a lawyer to defende Mr. Kambakh. In a already published short report it was reported that Parwiz Kambakhsh commented that there were one prosecutor and three judges, they passed the judgment by default and never let him reply.
Today, the Ministry of Information and Culture has claimed with a press release that Parwiz Kambakh was not a journalist and his case is not related to the media. Afghan Association Blog Writer is deeply disappointed of hearing this from the Ministry of Information and Culture. It is a clear cover up of the reality of the issue.

Kambakhsh was arrested because he had taken an article from the web. The article illustrated some parts of the Quran that talks about women's rights . Mr. Kambakhsh had only downloaded it, but not written it himself.

Afghan Association Blog Writer (Afghan Penlog) is deeply concerned about the trial that was carried without any respect for law whatsoever. Freedom of speech, granted by institutional law, was disregarded as well.

The Afghan Association Blog Writers (Afghan Penlog) supports and protests against the detention of Kambakhsh and demands to the Afghan Government an immediate release of Parwiz Kambakhsh.


Nasim Fekrat
Afghan Association Blog Writers
info@afghanpenlog.com
http://afghanpenlog-en.blogspot.com {English}
http://www.afghanpenlog.com/ {Farsi}