Afghan Student Gets 20 Years In Jail For Downloading Article On Women's Rights

[No Limit]

By Jerome Starkey in Kabul

Thursday, 12 March 2009


Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the student journalist sentenced to death for blasphemy in Afghanistan, has been told he will spend the next 20 years in jail after the country's highest court ruled against him ? without even hearing his defence.

The 23-year-old, brought to worldwide attention after an Independent campaign, was praying that Afghanistan's top judges would quash his conviction for lack of evidence, or because he was tried in secret and convicted without a defence lawyer. Instead, almost 18 months after he was arrested for allegedly circulating an article about women's rights, any hope of justice and due process evaporated amid gross irregularities, allegations of corruption and coercion at the Supreme Court. Justices issued their decision in secret, without letting Mr Kambaksh's lawyer submit so much as a word in his defence.

Afzal Nooristani, the legal campaigner representing Mr Kambaksh, accused the judges of behaving "no better than the Taliban". Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into Afghanistan's legal system and 149 British soldiers have died there since 2001, but experts admit that state justice is still beyond the reach of most ordinary Afghans.

President Hamid Karzai promised last year that justice would be done "in the right way", after worldwide protests at how Mr Kambaksh was convicted. But Mr Nooristani claimed yesterday that there was "no respect for the law", even in the highest court in Afghanistan. "They have ignored the principle of crime and punishment, they have ignored the principle of innocent until proven guilty. They have got the same mindset as the Taliban."

The Supreme Court's decision means Mr Kambaksh's best hope is now a presidential pardon, which will force Mr Karzai to choose between fundamentalists in his government and the rule of law. It has also raised serious questions over the millions of dollars spent on Afghan justice reforms since 2001, which appear to have been wasted. Mr Nooristani said: "The whole system is corrupt. Even with more investment, the system won't work."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/student-facing-twenty-years-in-hell-1643069.html

Democracy in action.

 

[Eejit]

Someone needs to invade that country and carry out regime change. This wouldn't happen if it was a democracy!

 

[CptStern]

dude:

THE sentencing of a 75-year-old widow to 40 lashes and four months in prison for mingling with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread has sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

religion breeds crazy

 

[Raziaar]

Fool should have known better!

Seriously though, this is terrible. What a laughable justice system. It's a shame that nothing about it is funny though.

 

[nurizeko]

We spend all this time fighting the Taliban NATO seems to have completely failed to noticed the primitive apes behind them.



Really, if America refuses to pull out I think the rest of NATO should, let America keep fighting a pointless conflict, its clear the Afghans just aren't ready for modern liberal democracy so NATO troops are dying for nothing.

 

[CptStern]

We spend all this time fighting the Taliban NATO seems to have completely failed to noticed the primitive apes behind them.

they noticed because taliban = Northern alliance = afghan transitional government

The mujahideen won when the Soviet Union pulled troops out of Afghanistan in 1989, followed by the fall of the Mohammad Najibullah regime in 1992. However, the mujahideen did not establish a united government, and many of the larger mujahideen groups began to fight each other over the power in Kabul. After several years of devastating infighting, a village mullah organized a new armed movement with the backing of Pakistan. This movement became known as the Taliban,

The United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (UIF, Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islami-yi Milli bara-yi Nijat-i Afghanistan), also known as the Northern Alliance (term used by the Western media), was a military-political umbrella organization created by the Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1996. The organization united various Afghan groups fighting against each other to fight the Taliban instead.

The United Front [United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, aka Northern Alliance] was extremely influential in the transitional Afghan Government of Hamid Karzai. Notably, Mohammed Fahim became the Vice President and Minister of Defence, Yunus Qanuni became the Minister of Education and Security Advisor and Dr Abdullah became the Foreign Minister.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

nothing new, move long.