Afghanistan journalist Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh (there are other spellings; this is the Globe's version) speaks to the Globe and Mail's Jessica Leeder about the twists his life has taken since Oct. 27, 2007, when he stood accused of blaspheming Islam -- something punishable by death in his country.
The death sentence was reduced this week (to 20 years in prison - BD) after a witness confessed to lying about Mr. Kambakhsh's alleged indiscretions, but a Kabul court still upheld the conviction.
And so, at an age when most Afghan men are raising young families, Mr. Kambakhsh finds himself locked alone in prison, pleading for justice and for a chance simply to be heard.
“I am not at fault,” he told The Globe, speaking through a Pashto translator. “I am a Muslim and I respect Islamic rules and regulations. I respect the Holy book of Koran. I respect the Prophet. I am an innocent person. I must be free.”
Back in October, Mr. Kambakhsh tried, to no avail, to tell the intelligence service this very same thing.
“They asked me many, many questions about an article which was translated from Arabic into Pashto. They said, ‘Why did you translate this article?' I said, ‘My brother, I don't know the Arabic language. It's not my work.'”
The explanation fell on deaf ears. For seven days, Mr. Kambakhsh said, he was held in custody at NDS, which by then was the subject of international questions over its reportedly harsh treatment of battleground detainees.
During that long week, one officer broke Mr. Kambakhsh's left hand trying to extract a confession.
“They said, ‘No, you translated this. You gave this to the students of the university. And you are guilty,'” Mr. Kambakhsh recalled.
On Jan. 22, 2008, Kambakhsh was hauled before a "court" where , in a matter of minutes, he was told he was guilty -- and was sentenced to death.
“They gave me the order: ‘You must die,' ” Mr. Kambakhsh said. “When I heard this, I was shocked because I was innocent.”
Ultimately, Mr. Kambakhsh came to believe that his conviction was a sort of consolation prize, one meant to satiate local warlords who were incensed at his older brother.
Also a journalist, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi Kambakhsh's passion was to publish works outlining “how the people of Afghanistan are the victims of warlordism and extremism,” he said.
“They couldn't do anything against me directly because … I was very exact about my pieces,” Yaqub Kambakhsh said yesterday.
Yaqub had this request of western countries:
... Foreign nations investing in Afghanistan's redevelopment should press President Hamid Karzai to intervene. The President has yet to comment publicly on the case.
“If Karzai doesn't have a clear position about this case, countries like Canada must stop their support with this regime, which doesn't respect the values of democracy,” he said.
“It seems that the Afghan government has two faces, one for foreign countries and one for the people of Afghanistan,” he said. “The real face is very dark and extremist.”