Student facing 20 years in hell
Afghan court secretly sentences student whose cause was taken up by The Independent. His crime? To download article on women's rights
Digg
del.icio.us
Facebook
Reddit
Google
Stumble Upon
Fark
Newsvine
YahooBuzz
Bebo
Twitter
Independent Minds
enlarge
Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the student journalist sentenced to death for blasphemy in Afghanistan, has been told he will spend the next 20 years in jail after the country's highest court ruled against him – without even hearing his defence.
The 23-year-old, brought to worldwide attention after an Independent campaign, was praying that Afghanistan's top judges would quash his conviction for lack of evidence, or because he was tried in secret and convicted without a defence lawyer. Instead, almost 18 months after he was arrested for allegedly circulating an article about women's rights, any hope of justice and due process evaporated amid gross irregularities, allegations of corruption and coercion at the Supreme Court. Justices issued their decision in secret, without letting Mr Kambaksh's lawyer submit so much as a word in his defence.
Afzal Nooristani, the legal campaigner representing Mr Kambaksh, accused the judges of behaving "no better than the Taliban". Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into Afghanistan's legal system and 149 British soldiers have died there since 2001, but experts admit that state justice is still beyond the reach of most ordinary Afghans.
President Hamid Karzai promised last year that justice would be done "in the right way", after worldwide protests at how Mr Kambaksh was convicted. But Mr Nooristani claimed yesterday that there was "no respect for the law", even in the highest court in Afghanistan. "They have ignored the principle of crime and punishment, they have ignored the principle of innocent until proven guilty. They have got the same mindset as the Taliban."
The Supreme Court's decision means Mr Kambaksh's best hope is now a presidential pardon, which will force Mr Karzai to choose between fundamentalists in his government and the rule of law. It has also raised serious questions over the millions of dollars spent on Afghan justice reforms since 2001, which appear to have been wasted. Mr Nooristani said: "The whole system is corrupt. Even with more investment, the system won't work."
Mr Kambaksh was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death last year for circulating an essay on women's rights which questioned verses in the Koran.
It later emerged he was convicted by three mullahs, in secret, without access to a lawyer. The sentence was commuted to 20 years on appeal. At that appeal, in October, the key prosecution witness withdrew his testimony, claiming he had been forced to lie on pain of death. The prosecution then appealed to the Supreme Court to reinstate the death sentence. The defence appealed to quash his conviction altogether.
Meanwhile, the student has been languishing in a Kabul jail, fearing for his life. Islamic fundamentalists have been baying for his blood while moderate groups have led marches countrywide demanding his release.
In February, the Supreme Court Judge Bahauddin Baha vowed the appeal would be held in "a very open court" but that promise has proved hollow. Mr Nooristani said he was told of the verdict when he arrived to submit his written defence. And Mr Nooristani has himself been threatened. Prosecutors have warned him they are gathering evidence against him for "defending infidels".
Western diplomats insist they have been lobbying hard to have the case reviewed. But critics say their softly-softly tactic hasn't worked. "The Afghans know the money just keeps coming no matter what they do," said an American lawyer in Kabul.
Even if Mr Kambaksh wins an 11th-hour pardon, there are thousands of people just like him, convicted illegally, with no recourse, support or international scrutiny.
Mr Kambaksh's case has been passed to the prosecutors' office for "execution of the sentence", which means he could be moved to Kabul's notorious Pul-e Charkhi prison, or north to Mazar-i-Sharif, where he was first found guilty. Both hold murderers, rapists and violent Taliban sympathisers. Conditions inside are grim and both are prone to deadly riots.
A spokesman for the Supreme Court claimed there had been no irregularities in the case. But a spokesman for the British embassy said: "We have serious concerns about the fairness of Mr Kambaksh's trial. We continue to call on the Afghan state to comply with the international human rights standards, to which it is a party – this includes the right to a fair trial."
Our Pervez campaign
Worldwide outrage over Pervez Kambaksh's death sentence was sparked after The Independent reported his plight in January 2008. Our campaign led to the Afghan President Hamid Karzai being inundated with appeals, while political figures including the former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice lent their support. The Government raised the matter directly with Afghanistan after more than 100,000 Independent readers signed the petition and in October 2008 a Kabul appeals court lifted the death sentence. The court ruled however that he should serve 20 years, which his lawyers contested on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.
- Print Article
- Email Article
-
Click here for copyright permissions
Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited
Comments
Hard-earned tax dollars propping up a 100% corrupted Government....??????
Calling President Obam.........Hello...???Indoboy7
Jesus, I'd hate to see the way you treated people you disliked :(
If you don't like the way these medieval thugs and their religious cult treat women, stop standing up for them when civilised people try to do something about it!
but when a muslim treat a muslim fellow like this articles (just to mention few...) none of the Muslism "brother" says or do anything...Am I missing something here....you decided...
God told them to do it (or not do it)
This guy has to be supported.
To allow him to rot for any longer - 18 monhs is already far too long in jail - is a crime .
Our soldiers are protecting these gangsters from other gansgters (Pakistan backed Taliban) and our money is being used to finance them. Something wrong?
Would God just strike down the individual who dared ask such questions, banish him from society for 20 years?
I would think not and i believe that those so called judges should be ashamed of themselves ...........where is their responsibility, intelligence and justness? I guess to ask questions of the Koran which so called religious leaders cannot answer makes you an infidel. Maybe these religious leaders and judges should go back and read their holy book once again so they can answer any questions put tio them in the future with a more intelligent way of reacting, maybe they might find some questions they too woukld like to ask.
Unfortunately the rest of them ain't much better. Same misogynistic diatribes runs rampant through all the Big Three people of the book. When will our religious leaders, all, get beyond their vain self indulgent need to control everybodys every action cradle to grave. Where women are chattel and kept far from the holy books. Any goodness or progress is obfuscated by endless rehashing of one nuanced interpretation by controlling counsels of men on top of other nuanced interpretations by controlling counsels more men that have fallen so far from the tree when it comes to the spirit of belief. All to suppress the evil nature of their charges, their sinning evil masses. Addendum to addendum to addendum. Wherever you go the same ol boys stickin it to the girls. 2000 years of disenfranchisement for half the people in society. Where is the evil they fear so. Big brother is not the future, he's been here for millenia. The cause worth fighting is some restoration of balance.
A remembrance of Khadija, Shekhinah, the Magdalene. To honour the Mother. To soften the angry hearts of men. A crime for which this young man is villified. His bravery punished by angry sophists. As Rumi challenged,
"If a man of intellect should enter, tell him the way is blocked, but if a lover should come, extend him a hundred welcomes".
Changing a culture one has to knibble at the edges so that change is gradual. In Afganistan we are attempting to change a culture overnight; this proscess is going to take a very long time and so we are in for 'The Long Haul' here. If we have the tenacity it can be done.
But should it change, there will be things that are worse compared to our culture; but there will also be things that are better. A difficult question?
No war in human history has ever been fought or will ever be fought for principles or sentiment. There are always interests, typically financial ones, when a country sends its' armed forces against another country. The armies of the US, UK etc are not in the Middle East because they are trying to bring democracy or justice. They are there because the Western economies are addicted to oil. Tight control of this area of the Middle East means secure oil supplies for us.
Point two:
Five, ten, twenty or fifty years of foreign occupation cannot change the way a society is organised or the way a culture works for centuries. Iraq of Afghanistan will never turn to real democracies, like we perceive democracy. Not in our lifetime, anyway.
Final point:
My point is that we are fooling ourselves about our motives to send troops to the Gulf region, as well as about our prospects of succeeding establishing democratic regimes and restructuring their societies. I suggest we leave from those regions as soon as possible and start thinking more about our own problems here in the West.
And a question:
If all this money that has been invested by the West to the Middle East wars had gone instead to research about alternative sources of energy... Do you thing we would have achived something?
Are you arguing that principles never motivate wars because financial interests motivate wars, and people can't possibly have multiple motivations for doing something? Or are you simply asserting?