We received great
news that Parwez Kambakhsh, a 24-year-old Afghan journalist and student who
was unjustly convicted of blasphemy and serving a
20-year term, was released from prison. But happiness over his release—the
product of intensive advocacy by CPJ and others—is tempered by deteriorating press
conditions overall in Afghanistan.
First, the good news:
Yaqub Ibrahimi, Parwez’s brother, confirmed the release in an e-mail to CPJ
this morning. “I want to let you know that [Kambakhsh] is released and we all
are really happy. I really appreciate CPJ’s strong action regarding the case. I
am really happy about all of this. It is a victory for freedom of speech in Afghanistan.”
In a follow-up telephone conversation, Ibrahimi said his
brother is doing fine after being set free, apparently on a presidential pardon. “He is
very happy, our family is very happy, especially my parents.” Ibrahimi, a
prominent journalist himself, was guarded about other details of his brother’s
release.
I visited Kambakhsh in the Kabul Detention
Center on July 21, part
of CPJ’s efforts to provide support and to advocate for his release. Although guards
were present in the room, he was adamant about his innocence. “As an Afghan and
a Muslim, I call on President Karzai to release me as soon as possible. I am
innocent,” he told CPJ. In short, Kambakhsh was convicted of distributing anti-Islamic
literature, a charge many observers saw as retaliation for his brother’s work.
Because of the high international profile and sensitivity of
the case, CPJ contacted several diplomatic entities in Kabul to ensure that they were pressing for
Kambakhsh’s release. At their insistence, CPJ did not publicize the case heavily
this summer but made sure that diplomatic officials kept in frequent contact
with Ibrahimi. In the end, it was this combination of
quiet diplomatic efforts in Kabul
and widespread international advocacy that led to Kambakhsh’s release.
National Directorate of Security
officials arrested
Kambakhsh, a local newspaper reporter and student at Balkh University
in Mazar-i-Sharif, on October 27, 2007. They accused him of distributing an
article from the Internet about women’s rights in Islam. On January 22, 2008,
he was sentenced to death at a closed-door trial that lasted but a few minutes.
Kambakhsh had been denied legal
representation. The death sentence was later commuted to a 20-year prison term.
A journalist freed from an unjust
imprisonment is a very good thing, something to celebrate but only for a moment.
Many other Afghan journalists have contacted us with complaints, many centering
on the disputed presidential election. It has gotten so bad in Kandahar that we’ll be sending a letter to President
Hamid Karzai detailing complaints from journalists in the capital and the rest
of the province. Kandahar
is a battleground between NATO forces and Taliban, fighting that is aggravated
by the still unsettled and increasingly disputed presidential election. (U.N.-backed
election monitors said today that there was “clear and convincing evidence of
fraud” in many polling stations and ordered a partial recount.) Some of the
journalists we have been in contact with there are concerned about threats from officials
connected with the provincial council, which is headed by Karzai’s brother and
election campaign manager, Ahmed Wali Karzai.
Of course, the pressure is not limited
to Kandahar. During
the elections August
20 election we reported that Afghan
police beat and detained Afghan and foreign journalists during the campaign in Kabul and
several other places around the country as they were enforcing an official gag
order on news of violent incidents during the presidential election. Madeline Earp, CPJ’s research associate checked
with three different Afghan reporters based in Kabul at the time of the elections. They said
the pressure was very real, and reports continue to come in from many places
around the country that it has not abated.
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