An Afghan Condemned

A death sentence against a student should be reversed -- by due process.

A23-YEAR-OLD Afghan journalist and student, Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, allegedly printed an article off the Internet that criticized Koranic verses on women. For that "insult" to Islam, an Afghan court has sentenced him to death. The case is symptomatic of the growing friction between Afghanistan's conservative Islamic culture and the new, human-rights-respecting democracy that President Hamid Karzai is trying to build with U.S. support. That means Mr. Karzai and Western supporters of Mr. Kambakhsh must proceed carefully, but Mr. Kambakhsh must not be executed.

Some Afghan religious leaders and politicians are treating Mr. Kambakhsh's highly politicized prosecution as a test case for determining whether the government truly upholds "the tenets and provisions of the holy religion of Islam," which the country's constitution says no Afghan law may "contravene" -- creating an unresolved tension with the constitution's commitments to free speech and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The upper house of parliament first issued a statement endorsing the death sentence, then retracted it.

The charged political context means that public demands by foreign governments on Mr. Karzai to use extrajudicial means to exonerate Mr. Kambakhsh may be counterproductive. Mr. Karzai would be better off acting not because of international outrage but in defense of the human rights principles he has advocated for Afghanistan. While all death sentences have to be approved by the president, Mr. Karzai's spokesman said yesterday he would not intervene until the courts have their final say in the case.

Mr. Kambakhsh's case could still be taken up by two higher courts; they should be pressed by liberal Afghans to enforce the democratic norms of the constitution, including rights to due process and defense counsel -- both of which Mr. Kambakhsh was denied. His family and several human rights groups are working to secure a lawyer for him, ideally one who is familiar with Afghan law and Islamic jurisprudence. They are also trying to move the case out of Balkh province and into Kabul, a less conservative locale that would be likely to afford him a fairer trial. Only if that process fails should Mr. Karzai be asked to issue a pardon.