[please excuse duplicate postings; please circulate widely]
INTERNATIONAL APPEAL
Spare the life of journalist Parviz Kambakhsh!
- Free him immediately!
We hold the governments of the NATO occupying troops responsible for
> his life.
Parviz Kambakhsh, a 23-year-old Afghani student has just been
sentenced to death after three months of detention under terrible
> conditions in the state security's detention centre in
> Marzar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.
Now in his third year of a journalism course at Balkh University in
> Mazar-e-Sharif, Parviz Kambakhsh also works as a journalist for the
> newspaper Jahan-e Naw.
> The young journalist was thrown into prison after being characterised
> as an atheist and an opponent of the regime by the NDS, the Karzai
> regime's security service. He is also accused of having printed
> atheist articles off the internet and distributed them among his
> classmates.
Kambakhsh was tortured continuously during his detention, both
> physically and mentally, and even threatened with death if he did not
> admit to the charges leveled against him.
He has not had access to a lawyer. He has not been allowed to see
members of his family or friends. The death sentence was delivered in his absence and in secret by
> Balkh Province Attorney General Hafizullah Khaliqyar and by the court > in Marzar-e-Sharif.
In 2001, when the war started with the invasion and occupation of
Afghanistan under the aegis of NATO, the occupying troops from the
> United States, France, Italy and Germany talked
about re-establishing > democracy and democratic rights and freedoms.
The Karzai regime that was put in place by the occupying forces has
> reintroduced Sharia law as the basic law of the land, with the support
> of all the states participating in the occupation and the war.
> It is precisely in the name of the Sharia law that the young
> journalist Parviz Kambakhsh has been sentenced to death for
> circulating documents downloaded from the internet.
We, the undersigned journalists and defenders of human rights and
> fundamental freedoms, call on the Karzai government, NATO and the
> occupying forces from the United States, France, Italy and Germany, to say:
>> - Spare the life of journalist Parviz Kambakhsh!
> - Free him immediately!
> - We hold the governments of the NATO occupying troops responsible for
> his life.
> Appeal initiated by:
Tristan MALLE General Secretary, on behalf of the General Union of
> Journalists, Force Ouvrière (France), and Jean Pierre BARROIS Senior
> Lecturer, University of Paris 12
- Spare the life of journalist Parviz Kambakhsh!
> - Free him immediately!
> * * * * * * * * * *
ENDORSEMENT COUPON
>
> [ ] I endorse this appeal to spare the life of Parviz Kambakhsh!
>
> NAME:
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> Please fill out and return to
> e-mail : <[email protected]> with a copy to
> <[email protected]>
> Postal Address: Syndicat Général Des journalistes
Force Ouvrière, 131
> rue Damrémont, 75018 Paris France