KABUL - Afghanistan's Senate has issued a statement lauding the death sentence against a local journalist found guilty of insulting Islam.
The statement, signed by Senate Chairman Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, also condemns attempts by outsiders to have the sentence annulled, calling it "international interference.''
Twenty-three-year-old journalist Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh was sentenced to death last week by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
He was charged after printing an article he found on the Internet and distributing it to journalism students at Balkh University.
The article asked why men can have four wives but women can't have multiple husbands.
The court in Mazar-i-Sharif found that the article humiliated Islam. Members of a clerical council also pushed for Kaambakhsh to be punished.
"That issue was not in the (Senate's) agenda, but when lawmakers gathered on Tuesday they insisted on talking about that case,'' said Aminuddin Muzafari, a spokesman for Mojaddedi.
Following a debate, the legislators decided to issue the statement supporting the court's decision, he said.
Kaambakhsh has appealed his conviction and the case will now go to an appeals court. President Hamid Karzai will have the final say in the matter.
International human rights groups have condemned the sentence and called on Afghan authorities to quash it.
