Afghanistan’s upper house of Parliament has condemned the release of an Afghan journalist who was sentenced to 20 years in jail for blasphemy and was granted asylum in an undisclosed country.
Perwiz Kambakhsh, originally sentenced to death for downloading and distributing an Iranian article from the internet that said the Prophet Mohammad ignored women’s rights, was recently freed after serving two years of a 20-year jail term.
Under Islamic law — stipulated in Afghanistan’s constitution — blasphemy is punishable by death. Kambakhsh’s release came after a number of Western leaders pressured President Hamid Karzai’s government to grant him freedom.
The upper house of Parliament said in a statement on Monday the release of the 24 year-old reporter who worked for the Jahan-e Now daily newspaper was contrary to Islamic values.
”The members of Meshrano Jirga [Upper House] expressed concern that this was not the first time a person sentenced for apostasy and impiety with the cooperation of anti-Islamic organisations is freed from punishment,” it said in the statement, adding that Kambakhsh should have been punished.
The Parliament ”emphatically advises the responsible authorities, in particular the presidency” not to aquit people such as Kambakhsh ”under the order of Islam’s enemies”, referring to Western countries operating in Afghanistan.
Several years back, an Afghan man — a former employee of a Western aid group sentenced to death for converting to Christianity — was spirited out of a jail under pressure from Western leaders and was granted asylum in Italy. — Reuters