Grim News from Afghanistan

Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, 23, a journalism student and reporter in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, has been sentenced to death by a local court for insulting Muhammad by calling him “a killer and adulterer,” and “downloading a controversial article and adding some of his own words about the ignorance of the Prophet [sic] Muhammad on women’s rights.”

Kambakhsh has the right to appeal his sentence, and I hope the Supreme Court will be more liberal in its views of the right to free speech than the lower court has been.

Index on Censorship has more, and says it’s possible for Kambakhsh to receive a pardon from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, though he has not yet spoken on the case. Still, it is appalling that anybody could be convicted for such a victimless “crime” in the first place.