According to information provided to the International Press Institute (IPI), Ali Mohaqeq Nasab, editor of the monthly Haqooq-I-Zan (“Women’s Rights”) now faces the possibility of the death penalty for alleged blasphemy.

In May, Haqooq-I-Zan published a series of essays that questioned the discrimination of women, as well as harsh penalties for criminals, including adulterers, and intolerance of those leaving the Islamic faith.

While the essays caused little comment at the time of their publication, an influential Muslim cleric later gave a sermon in which he called Nasab an infidel. Police arrested Nasab on 1 October and he was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on 22 October. During the trial, Nasab was hindered in his attempts to enter a full and comprehensive defence.

Nasab has since appealed conviction to a higher court, but so have the prosecutors who argue that the lower court’s sentence was too lenient. The prosecutors also argue that, if Nasab fails to apologise for his blasphemy, the editor should be hanged.

The head of the public security division of the Attorney General’s office, Abdul Jamil, was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, “According to sharia law, if he does not repent and if he does not return to his religion, he should be executed.” In interviews, Nasab has refused to offer an apology.

Speaking about the case, IPI Director Johann P. Fritz said, “The threat to use the death penalty against an editor is not only a travesty of justice, but undermines the claims made by President Hamid Karzai, who has shown support for press freedom in Afghanistan.”

“With this in mind, I would invite President Karzai to do everything possible to resolve this issue immediately. By doing so, he will be showing the international community that press freedom is of central importance to the new, democratic, Afghanistan.”