International outrage has finally got through the thick skulls of the Afghan senate. Citing "a technical mistake," the Senate withdrew its confirmation of Kambaksh's death sentence for supposed blasphemy consisting of downloading a report on women's rights. From The Independent:
The move follows widespread international protests and appeals to the President, Hamid Karzai, after the case was highlighted by The Independent and more than 38,000 readers signed our petition to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. In Britain, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and the shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, backed the campaign, and there have been demonstrations in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
The first ruling by the Senate supporting the death sentence on Mr Kambaksh by a religious court in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country, was proposed by Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a key ally of President Karzai, and was seen as a severe blow to the 23-year-old journalism student's chances of avoiding execution.
Mr Kambaksh can now petition the court of appeal against both his conviction and sentence, and, afterwards, the supreme court. If he fails there, he can appeal directly to Mr Karzai – who has been inundated with emails about the case – for a pardon. Mr Kambaksh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, welcomed the new position adopted by the Senate. He added, however, that he might have difficulties finding lawyers to present the case at the appeal court after warnings from fundamentalist groups against people "allying themselves with the apostate". He said the only realistic chance of his brother being freed might be the personal intervention of Mr Karzai. "
5 comments:
The question many bloggers, Conservative and Liberal, were asking
'is this what we are fighting for',
the answer is YES.
Right, after it took overwhelming pressure to bear on this group to commute - on a sentence that should never have taken place at all, and WOULD have been carried out if no one had stepped in.
Nice attempt to pervert this into a pro-Harper position though Wilson. I see the Harper constituency office has you working overtime again to spread the Con Kool-Aid.
"We" didn't get the Afghan senate to change. It was a worldwide public outcry. What we need to fight for is to drive these knuckleheads out of the Afghan government. Dopers, warlords and bums - the place is full of them and we're propping them up with the lives of our soldiers.
You got a link to this piece in the Independent? I've been asked about whether the death sentence really has been removed or not.. because no news story can be found confirming it.
Hi Scott. It's unclear whether the withdrawal of senate confirmation is enough to block execution. The article suggested it opens the way to an appeal (very strange concept of judicial fairness, no?). And then there's the reality of what sort of imprisonment would be imposed if the death penalty is set aside. The Afghans are intent on continuing a Sharia state and I doubt we're going to get our boy Karzai to oppose that. Fundamentalist feudalism seems to be the best we can hope for from the "new" Afghanistan.
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