Afghan journalism student sentenced to 20 years

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence for a journalism student accused of blasphemy and instead sentenced him Tuesday to 20 years in prison.

The death sentence against 24-year old Parwez Kambakhsh came to symbolize Afghanistan's slide toward an ultraconservative view on religious and individual freedoms.

Prosecutors alleged that Kambakhsh disrupted classes by asking questions about women's rights under Islam. They also said he illegally distributed an article he printed off the Internet that asks why Islam does not modernize to give women equal rights. He also allegedly scribbled his own comments on the paper.

The head of Tuesday's three-judge panel, Abdul Salaam Qazizada, struck down the lower court's death penalty but still sentenced Kambakhsh to 20 years behind bars. The judge said the decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jxl8KyDRbgRsT1RORpq-0X3vvX6QD93UTAC80

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Women's rights are blasphemy.

Aye-yi-yi.....

[Downtown Hound]

1. Wow, sure glad we liberated that country

and brought them freedom. :eyes:

[darkism]

2. Freedom is on the march!

Glad to see we kept our eye on the ball over there.

[pattmarty]

3. Hows about we just leave and let it turn back into the shithole it was?

[bertman]

4. Wow, just twenty years instead of Death. They're goin' all SOFT on crime.

I mean, the guy was asking questions about women's rights. How fucking subversive can you get. Stone his liberal ass.

This kind of progressive judicial ruling could instigate a Taliban backlash, forcing Obama to send in another 100,000 American troops to restore religious freedoms.

Yaaayyy Allah!!

[UndertheOcean]

5. This makes me so angry

[struggle4progress]

6. These are the "mujahideen" that the Reaganites enthusiastically supported twenty years ago

The mujahideen were thugs then, and they are thugs now

[DS1]

7. 20 years in an Afghan prison? That's still a death sentence.

I'd prefer the firing squad