Kabul Press today received this photo, snapped by an anonymous Kabulpress source, of 21 year old student-journalist Parwiz Kambakhsh in the notorious Pul-e-Charki prison outside of Kabul. The stress from months in prison is evident.

In January 2008, Kambakhsh was sentenced to death by a local court in Mazar-i-Sharif on the charge of "blasphemy" for distributing a scholarly article about women in the Koran to fellow students. He firmly denies the charge. In February, after spending several months in a Kabul jail, he was secretly sentenced by the Supreme Court of Afghanistan to twenty years in prison— in violation of the Afghan Constitution. Despite international outcry and a promise by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to see that justice would be done, Parwiz remains in jail.

Friends and relatives relate that Parwiz is suffering from several mental and physical ailments due to the imprisonment.

Please sign our petition to U.S. authorities to press for the release of Parwiz. It will be personally delivered to the U.S. White House and U.S. State Department by representatives of KabulPress.

For more information:

Journalist Roxana Saberi freed in Iran— Why not Kambakhsh in Afghanistan? Sign our petition!