Journalist ‘insulted Islam’ when he distributed report questioning polygamy

Members of the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan march during a demonstration against the death sentence of Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Jan 31.

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KABUL, Afghanistan – Conservative clerics and elders demanded Thursday that the Afghan government not interfere with a controversial death sentence handed down to a young journalist convicted of insulting Islam for distributing a report questioning polygamy.

Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, 23, was sentenced to death on Jan. 22 by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for handing out a report he printed off the Internet to fellow journalism students at Balkh University.