Journalist Convicted of Blasphemy in Afghanistan
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA and CARLOTTA GALL The New York Times | October 23, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/international/asia/24cnd-afghan.html?hp&ex=1130126400&en=21a1d66e483da804&ei=5094&partner=homepage KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 23 - For the first time since the fall of the Taliban's Islamic government four years ago, a journalist has been convicted by a Kabul court under the country's blasphemy laws. Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the editor of "Women's Rights," a monthly magazine for women, was sentenced on Saturday to two years in prison by Kabul's primary court. The sentence will automatically be reviewed on appeal. The sentencing came after a strenuous battle between Kabul's conservative judges, led by members of the Supreme Court, and the liberal Minister of Information and Culture, Sayed Makhdum Raheen, and reveals the strains between moderates and conservatives in the government of President Hamid Karzai. The prosecutor called for the maximum sentence of death, accusing the editor of apostasy, so the two-year sentence appears to have been a compromise. But it is a reminder that Afghanistan is still ruled by Islamic Shariah law and that, on issues of religion, conservatives are determined to enforce it. "He could not provide a defense against the prosecutor and was found guilty of disrespecting Islamic law and was convicted to two years imprisonment," said Ansarullah Maulavizada, chief of the public security tribunal in charge of the case. The prosecution contended that the magazine had run two articles in its latest issue about apostasy that violated the law by saying that while apostasy was taboo, it was not a crime under Islam. The authorities apparently ordered the issue removed from newsstands. Mr. Raheen said, however, that the court had bypassed a commission that is supposed to make a recommendation in media cases and that the commission had found no blasphemy after examining the articles. Mr. Nasab, an Afghan who lived in Iran as a refugee, is an Islamic scholar and holds degrees from more than one Islamic university there, Mr. Raheen said. He was arrested on Oct. 1 and had won two postponements, one to find a lawyer and a second when he said he was ill. He was shown on the Afghan commercial channel, Tolo TV, at the trial. "I do not accept the decision of the court," he said, adding that he had no lawyer, though it was unclear whether he had chosen not to hire a lawyer or had not been able to find one. Mr. Maulavizada said on Saturday that Mr. Nasab had been given enough time to prepare. Mr. Raheen, the minister of information and culture, had intervened in the case, recommending leniency. Under a new media law put into effect under President Hamid Karzai, the Media Commission for Investigating Media-Related Offenses is to review cases in which the media are accused of wrongdoing and to make a recommendation to the court, though the recommendation is not binding. "This procedure was not legal at all - to send someone to jail like that," Mr. Raheen said when Mr. Nasab was arrested. To emphasize that point, Mr. Nasab held a meeting of the group on Wednesday. The commission interviewed Mr. Nasab and examined the two articles in question, one written by Mr. Nasab and one by an Iranian author. "We found there was no blasphemy in the articles at all," Mr. Raheen said in an interview. "We believe it was a media mistake, that the way he has explained things creates misunderstanding, so we gave him advice to be more careful so as not to create misunderstanding." He added that the court's anger had been directed against the article written by the Iranian and that the commission had recommended Mr. Nasab's dismissal as editor because his inexperience had led him to publish something that resulted in a misunderstanding. The commission includes two religious scholars, one of them a former Supreme Court judge, a member of the Academy of Sciences, two independent professional journalists, the journalism dean of Kabul University and a member of the human rights commission, Mr. Raheen said. The case also has political overtones, since Mr. Nasab, a Shiite, who was an unsuccessful candidate in the September parliamentary elections, had already come into conflict with senior, conservative Shiite clerics during the campaign, said Robert Kluyver, representative of the Open Society Institute in Afghanistan. The magazine "has been published for a number of years now, and although its articles are quite critical, they are well researched and not defamatory," he said in an e-mail message about the case. The issues addressed in the articles in question, and the religious scholarly way they were addressed, would be common in any other Islamic country, including Iran, he said. This is not the first time that accusations of blasphemy have been raised against editors and writers under Mr. Karzai's government, but in the past Mr. Raheen has managed to prevent convictions by the conservative judges and members of the Supreme Court. "I don't want any kind of damage to the freedom of speech," he said. "I have been working very hard on this." He added, "There are always some fanatics behind these things and they take sides very quickly." Abdul Waheed Wafa reported from Kabul for this article, and Carlotta Gall reported from Cambodia. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Life without art & music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
