Afghan student faces death sentence

The World
The World

JM �he is accused of having downloaded material from the internet and distributing it at his university. this material was critical of the Koran and of Islam's position on women. Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, the student, insists he had nothing to do with downloading the material or distributing the material.� MW �how did his name appear at the bottom of this pamphlet then?� JM �Kambaksh says this is a plot against him by the authorities in this area.� MW �And why would a plot be concocted against him?� JM �it's a complicated issue. Kambaksh's brother has been a very outspoken reporter for the past three or four years. He has done a number of very hard hitting stories about the rising power of the warlords in the north of Afghanistan. There is a certain amount of pressure not to make this a freedom of speech or a freedom of media issue, so they did not want to go after the brother directly. And the brother feels, and many media observers feel, this is a way of putting pressure on that brother.� MW �that's a theory, is there any proof behind that?� JM �the proof would be that the day after Kambaksh was arrested, the security services came to his brother's office. They searched his hard drive and they tried to confiscate his notebooks. They were interested specifically in one story he had done that targeted a warlord in the north who is now a member of parliament.� MW �And you're speaking of the brother now, correct?� JM �I'm speaking of the brother. They took the names and contact numbers of sources that he had used in his story. This had absolutely nothing to do with Kambaksh or the charges against Kambaksh. So we think there's a very clear connection between Kambaksh and this issue or action against his brother.� MW �I'd like us to listen to just some reaction from the brother of the arrested and sentenced to death Kambaksh. He's quite emotional about this case.� The brother, �I'm so angry about it, and so concerned about this kind of decision. I'm so angry about it, why the international community does not forecast on Afghanis, they just forecast on Talibanism.� MW �what exactly is the role of the international community in bringing some kind of resolution to this crisis that would not end up as a death sentence at this point of Kambaksh, or even just a second look at this case?� JM �I think it's up to the international community to bring this to the attention of the president of Afghanistan. Ahmed Karzai has to weigh in on this issue, he's been silent so far. But what the brother is actually saying is that the international community in their assessment of Afghanistan is seeing danger only in the Taliban, they are not seeing that the warlords are just as much of a danger as the Taliban. And what has happened to his brother he sees as a function of the rising power of warlords. And he is trying to alert people to the danger of the warlords and these people regaining power specifically in the north of Afghanistan.� MW �comment on something the Ministry of Information and Culture said a couple of days ago, that the death penalty for Kambaksh is not a final verdict, that the Ministry believes that the justice system in Afghanistan treats death penalty cases very, very seriously and with full caution they say. What is the likelihood that this sentence will be overturned?� JM �We're hoping there is a very good chance this will be overturned. The death sentence was issued by the lower court of this town. It has to go through two more courts before it would become the final sentence. So we're hoping that the next or final court will pardon him or commute the sentence for humanitarian reasons or for legal reasons.�

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