Afghan President Karzai concerned over reporter's death sentence

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
President Hamid Karzai has expressed concern over the death sentence handed down to a journalist for insulting Islam, but will not intervene until Afghanistan's courts have their final say, a spokesman said Tuesday. Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, 23, was sentenced to death on January 22 by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for distributing a report he printed off the Internet to journalism students at Balkh University. The article asked why men can have four wives but women cannot have multiple husbands. The court in Mazar-i-Sharif found that the article humiliated Islam. Members of a clerical council also pushed for Kaambakhsh to be punished. Kaambakhsh has appealed his conviction, and the case will now go to an appeals court.