A/HRC/10/8/Add.1 page 5 II. SUMMARY OF CASES TRANSMITTED AND REPLIES RECEIVED Afghanistan Urgent appeal sent on 28 January 2008 jointly with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions 4. The Special Rapporteurs brought to the attention of the Government information they had received regarding Mr. Sayed Perwiz Kambaksh, a student and journalist at a local newspaper in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. According to the information received, Mr. Kambaksh was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges by the city court of Mazar-i-Sharif on 22 January 2008 in a trial reportedly conducted in camera and without the presence of a defence lawyer. The blasphemy charges are related to a report that Mr. Kambaksh printed off the Internet and distributed to other journalism students at Balkh University, which was considered by the judges as having “distorted Quran verses” and “humiliated Islam”. According to reports, Mr. Kambaksh’s condemnation may be related to articles written by his brother and published by the Institute of War and Peace Reporting criticizing Balkh provincial authorities for corruption and abuse of power. Observations 5. The Special Rapporteur regrets that she has not received a reply from the Government of Afghanistan concerning the above mentioned allegations. Reportedly, the Appeal Court of Kabul overturned Mr. Kambaksh’s death sentence on 21 October 2008, but sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment. The Special Rapporteur would like to take this opportunity to refer to her report to the 62nd session of the General Assembly (A/62/280), which discusses issues of concern with regard to blasphemy laws. In paragraph 75, she notices that there are worrying trends towards applying blasphemy laws in a discriminatory manner and that they often disproportionately punish members of religious minorities, dissenting believers and non-theists or atheists. In paragraph 77, she reiterates that criminalizing “defamation of religions” can be counterproductive, since it may create an atmosphere of intolerance and fear and may even increase the chances of a backlash. Her predecessor, Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, already emphasized in his report to the 56th session of the Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/2000/65, para. 111) that “several communications from the Special Rapporteur illustrate the danger that efforts to combat defamation (particularly blasphemy) may be manipulated for purposes contrary to human rights”. Australia Communication sent on 1 November 2007 jointly with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people 6. The Special Rapporteurs brought to the attention of the Government information they had received concerning the possible imminent destruction of a sacred indigenous rock art complex situated in the Burrup Peninsula, Dampier Archipelago. The summary of this communication is already reproduced in A/HRC/7/10/Add.1, paras. 4-8.