A journalist for local Afghan newspaper Jahan-e Naw (New World) arrested in October 2007 in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, charged with blasphemy for downloading from the Internet an article critical of Islam’s position on women’s rights and distributing it to some of his fellow students, and sentenced to 20 years in prison – after a death sentence was commuted – has been released. Parwez was not the author of the article.

Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, also a student at Balkh University, was prosecuted under Article 130 of the Afghan Constitution, which states that Sharia law can be applied to crimes that are not covered by the criminal code.

In January 2008, he was tried by an Islamic court in Mazar-i-Sharif and sentenced to death. The death sentence, which caused an international outcry, was eventually commuted to a 20-year prison sentence by Kabul’s Court of Appeal in October 2008. In early 2009, Afghanistan’s Supreme Court upheld Parwez’s sentence.

On Monday, international news outlets announced Parwez’s pardon, which was reportedly secretly signed by President Hamid Karzai a few weeks ago. Parwez has left the country for fear of reprisal.

“It is difficult to appreciate what Parwez must have suffered when he found himself facing the death penalty for simply downloading a critical article,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “Both the judiciary and the Afghan government must realize that if they are to fully succeed in bringing democracy to the country they must acknowledge the right of journalists to seek, receive and impart information in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

IPI had repeatedly expressed concern about Parwez’s sentence, highlighting not only the injustice of it but also its repercussion on Afghan journalists’ ability to freely report on sensitive issues