UN: Death sentence for journalist a “possible misuse of the judicial process”

posted at 10:00 am on January 26, 2008 by Bryan
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Possible misuse? The man didn’t even write the story that earned him a death sentence. He downloaded it and handed it out to a few others. Even if he had written it, civilized countries don’t kill you for questioning something or other. And he’s in a country that we supposedly freed from the tyranny of the Taliban. And the best the UN can do is to say that his death sentence is a “possible misuse of the judicial process?” What would constitute an actual injustice?

The death sentence handed down to a reporter in Afghanistan has prompted the United Nations and several press freedom organisations to call on the Afghan government to intervene in the case.

Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, 23, a journalist for the daily Janan-e-Naw, and a student of Balkh University, was detained in October for downloading from the Internet and distributing to classmates an article written by an Iranian scholar that contained anti-Islamic sentiments.
The article allegedly questioned why men are allowed to have four spouses in Islam while women are denied the same right.

On Tuesday Kambakhsh was presented before a court of three judges in northern Mazar-e-Sharif and handed the death penalty in a closed session without any legal counsel.
The Afghan Independent Journalists Association was outraged that no lawyer, journalist, or human rights representatives were permitted entry to the court during Kambakhsh’s trail.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on Thursday issued a statement saying the case is a “possible misuse of the judicial process” that does not “serve the cause of justice.”

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting, which has offices in Kabul, believe the real intent by the court is to intimidate Kambakhsh’s older brother, Ibrahimi, who recently published an article implicating an Afghan legislator in a series of killings and kidnappings.

Insane. But this is the tyranny of sharia, and tyranny in general, up close. Those of us who grew up or live in countries that protect civil rights, however imperfectly, have no idea how good we have it. Hopefully we won’t allow sharia to keep creeping up to the point where we have to find out the hard way.

With weak statements like the one above about a “possible misuse” of the judicial system resulting in a death sentence for distributing something downloaded off the internet, it’s obvious that the UN won’t be much help. And our Afghan allies don’t seem to be much help either.

(h/t Jihad Watch)

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