Afghanistan's President has promised justice for Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, raising hopes that the condemned student journalist will be freed.
At a joint press conference with the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, and the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who arrived in Afghanistan on a previously unannounced visit, President Hamid Karzai vowed: "Justice will be done." It was the first time that the President has spoken publicly about the 23-year-old's plight, which sparked outrage around the world, after The Independent launched a petition to save him last week. Mr Kambaksh was sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading an article about women's rights, which poked fun at Islam by questioning why men are allowed four spouses, but women are not.
Asked about the case by The Independent, Mr Karzai said he had talked it over with the US and British officials, who have both expressed concerns over Mr Kambaksh's fate.
His family claim the case was heard in secret and he was not allowed a lawyer.
Mr Karzai insisted it was a matter for his country's courts to deal with. He said: "This is an issue that our judicial system is handling. I can assure you, that at the end of the day, justice will be done in the right way."
His remarks suggest he is not planning to use his executive powers to intervene at this stage, but that he may yet pardon Mr Kambaksh if the sentence is upheld by Afghanistan's supreme court. Under Afghan law the President has to sign off on a death sentence before it can be carried out.
That follows on this Wednesday news release from Reporters sans frontieres:
Reporters Without Borders welcomes the undertakings given today by President Hamid Karzai as regards Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, the young journalist who has been sentenced to death on a trumped-up charge of distributing information that insulted Islam. Karzai told a delegation of Afghan journalists that they had no reason to worry about him.
"We want to believe that President Karzai really is determined to find a rapid solution to this appalling affair," the press freedom organisation said. "The death sentence passed on Kambakhsh by a court in Mazar-i-Sharif is unworthy of Afghanistan, whose constitution protects free expression. We call for the case to be quickly transferred to Kabul and for the conviction to be quashed."
Reporters Without Borders added: "This new abuse of the blasphemy law should prompt the Afghan authorities to find a way to provide better protection for freedom of expression, one that will be effective even when subjects as sensitive as religion are involved."
The delegation from the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association that met President Karzai today in Kabul briefed him about the case and asked him to intervene. Rahimullah Samandar, a member of the delegation, told Reporters Without Borders that Karzai gave them hope that Kambakhsh would be freed soon.
Here's the Independent story from Thursday:
The world's most powerful woman has added her voice to the campaign to save the life of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the Afghan student journalist sentenced to death for downloading material on women's rights from the internet.
Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, promised yesterday to raise his case personally with the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, which would significantly raise the international pressure for his release.
Ms Rice, who was in London for talks with Gordon Brown and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, on the West's Afghanistan strategy said: "I do think that the Afghans understand that there are some international norms that need to be respected. Of course, one has national laws and they're national laws that are in accordance with traditions and religious practice. But there are international norms, and I'll certainly talk to President Karzai about this case."
Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier has made no statements on this case to date. Check DFAIT news releases here.
Some recent headlines there:
No. 29 - February 4, 2008
CANADA CONDEMNS SUICIDE BOMBING IN ISRAEL
No. 28 - February 4, 2008
CANADA CONDEMNS ARMED ATTACK ON CHAD
No. 27 - February 4, 2008
MINISTER BERNIER WELCOMES POLISH FOREIGN MINISTER RADOSŁAW SIKORSKI
No. 26 - February 2, 2008
CANADA WELCOMES COLOMBIA’S RATIFICATION OF THE COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR TEST-BAN TREATY
No. 25 - February 1, 2008
STATEMENT FROM MINISTER BERNIER ON THE SECURITY AND HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN SOMALIA
No. 24 - February 1, 2008
CANADA EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER DETERIORATING SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE
Foreign Affairs Canada felt it worthy to acknowledge that burgeoning nuclear power Colombia has signed the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, to issue a news release giving a shout-out to the Polish foreign minister, and to express concern about the situations in Zimbabwe and Somalia.
Yet its silence continues on the Kambaksh case.
My questions: Considering there are Canadian troops fighting and dying in Afghanistan, why is the government of Canada not speaking out about the Kambaksh case, one that would have seemed more likely under the Taliban? Why was the prime minister relatively aggressive on speaking out about human rights in China, yet is silent when an Afghanistan citizen faces a possible death sentence for handing out an article that offends Muslim clerics?
Here are some statements issued lately by the PMO:
7 February 2008
7 February 2008
7 February 2008
1 February 2008
"I think Canadians want us to promote our trade relations worldwide, and we do that, but I don't think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values -- our belief in democracy, freedom, human rights. ... They don't want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar. There's always a balance to these things.''