Afghanistan’s Senate endorsed a death sentence handed down by a court to a reporter

Afghanistan’s Senate endorsed a death sentence handed down by a court to a reporter and journalism student accused of blasphemy, Parliament media office said. The Senate, called the Meshrano Jirga (House of Elders), issued a statement backing last week’s decision by the Balkh province primary court, an official said. The court sentenced Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, to death for distributing articles downloaded from the Internet that were said to question the Koran and the role of women in Islam. The House “strongly criticises those domestic and international organisations which are pressurising Afghanistan’s government and legal authorities when pursuing such people,” it said. The statement was signed by Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the head of the Senate who was briefly Afghan President in the early 1990s. The death sentence must pass through various higher courts and be approved by President Karzai, who has been called on by international and Afghan media rights organisations to intervene in the case.