Save Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh

In case the story has fallen off everyone’s radar: Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh is a journalism student at Balk University in Mazar-i Sharif. He supposedly copied text from an Iranian website criticizing Islam’s stance on the treatment of women, and added his own thoughts on the matter—much like a blogger would. For this, the Afghan intelligence services investigated him (as if they have nothing else to investigate), and after his arrest a court in Balkh province convicted him of heresy and sentenced him to death.

At his most recent appeals hearing, according to Jean MacKenzie at IWPR, Kambakhsh was berated by his own judge:

Presiding judge Abdul Salam Qazizada has weathered several Afghan administrations. He is a holdover from the Taleban regime, and his antagonism to the defendant was visible…

During the session, Qazizada appeared to take on the role of prosecutor rather than impartial judge, engaging in a legal duel with defence attorney Mohammad Afzal Nooristani. Lacking a gavel, he repeatedly banged his pen against his microphone in an effort to halt Nooristani’s defence of his client.

Time and again the judge attacked Kambakhsh, who sat pale but composed in the defendant’s chair.

“Just tell me why you did these things,” insisted Qazizada. “What were your motives?”

“I cannot give you reasons, since I did not do anything,” responded Kambakhsh.

Kambakhsh is alleged to have been beaten since his initial imprisonment last December, however given the length of time it took for an examination to be scheduled, most of the physical markings have healed over. Though he plead guilty, he claims to have done so under duress.

Kambakhsh also stands accused of numerous character flaws, such as asking too many questions in class, seeking attention and popularity, being impolite, and swapping dirty jokes over his cellphone.

Despite the obvious injustice of the case—while heresy is punishable by death in Afghanistan’s constitution, it is unclear how highlighting the abuse of women qualifies—international attention to his plight has been scant. A story on his case has not made the international media in months (despite worrying indications this is a revenge case for his brother’s work with IWPR), and despite high-profile pressure on Hamid Karzai to intervene—Abdul Rahman, a convert to Christianity, escaped execution only after extreme international pressure convinced the government to declare him legally insane and have him deported—nothing has yet happened.

But there is a darker issue at play. This Taliban-holdover judge, who was interrupting Kambakhsh during his defense and angrily accusing him of committing the crime he was being tried for, is in Kabul—not up in Balkh, where perhaps some could have written off the verdict as the relic of a hyper-conservative rural area. Kambakhsh’s defense lawyers hadn’t examined his case file even a week before his first appeals hearing, and the Upper House of Parliament has voiced its support for his execution, along with conservative clerics and some tribal elders.

With this much of Afghanistan’s society arrayed against him, what hope does Kambakhsh really have? Karzai is politically very weak—will he be able to risk enough political capital to free him? Can any organization, save perhaps the U.S. military, exert enough pressure to protect a journalist from basically doing his job? We can certainly hope so. But hope seems in short supply here.