Sayed Pervez Kambaksh

Who is Sayed Pervez Kambaksh?

Sayed Parwez Kambaksh was born 24 July in 1984 in Afghanistan. In late 2007, he was a student at Balkh University and a journalist for Jahan-e-Naw, a daily. On 27 October 2007, police arrested Kambaksh, and accused him of "blasphemy and distribution of texts defamatory of Islam". The authorities claimed that Kambaksh distributed writing posted on the Internet by Arash Bikhoda. Bikoda's writing criticizes the treatment of women under Islamic Law.

On 22 January 2008, the Primary Court in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif sentenced Kambaksh to death for "blasphemy and distribution of texts defamatory of Islam". The court's chief judge said, "He insulted the prophet Mohammed. He called him a murderer and a womanizer." The court relied on Kambaksh's confession. Kambaksh denounced the confession as a product of torture. On 29 January 2008, the Upper House of Parliament issued a declaration supporting the death sentence but quickly retracted it because of a technical error.

Kambaksh appealed the decision, and the case moved to a Court of Appeals in Kabul. In October 2008, the court upheld the conviction but commuted the sentence to imprisonment for twenty years.