writers in prison committee report - PEN Canada

leased
AFGHANiSTAN
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, a student at Balkh university
and reporter for the local daily Jahan-e-naw (the new
world), was arrested on October 27, 2007 for blasphemy,
after circulating an article downloaded from the internet
which claimed that the Prophet Mohammed had ignored
women’s rights. In January 2008, he was sentenced to
death after a closed hearing with no legal representation.
This sentence was later commuted to 20 years in prison.
On September 7, 2009 the Afghan Ministry of Justice
confirmed that Kambakhsh had been released two weeks
earlier under a Presidential pardon.
CHiNA AND AUTONOMOUS ReGiONS
On November 10, 2009 the blogger Li Zhi was released
after a second reduction in his eight-year sentence for
a “conspiracy to subvert state power.” A financial official
in the Dazhou municipal government, Li was arrested
by provincial State Security Police in August 2003 after
he accused Sichuan officials of corruption. Since Zhi’s
article was posted on an overseas website he was charged
on September 3 with conspiring with foreign-based
dissidents. On December 10, he was sentenced to eight
years in prison. The sentence was upheld on appeal on
February 26, 2004. The court verdict confirms that
both Yahoo! and Sina Beijing supplied evidence to
the prosecution.
PEN CANADA 31