Afghan student's death sentence hits nerve

KABUL, Afghanistan — A 23-year-old journalism student languishes in an Afghan jail, facing execution for insulting Islam in a case that has aroused worldwide outrage.

The death sentence handed to Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh on Jan. 22 is a sign of repression that still exists in Afghanistan more than six years after the fall of the fundamentalist Taliban regime.

The United Nations, citing "possible misuse of the judicial process," has urged the Afghan government to review the case. The U.S. State Department has criticized the ruling. Human rights activist Zainab Al-Suwaij, executive director of the American Islamic Congress, called Kaambakhsh's sentence by a court in northern Afghanistan's Balkh province "an insult to all Muslims of conscience, who must demand his immediate release."

On Thursday, about 200 Afghans belonging to the small Solidarity Party of Afghanistan demonstrated in front of the main United Nations office here in the capital calling for his release.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-01-31-Afghanstudent_N.htm