WORLD BRIEFING / AFGHANISTAN

An Afghan journalist, whose death sentence for blasphemy was reduced to 20 years in prison on appeal, has been released and is living in exile in an undisclosed country, a media watchdog said.

Parwez Kambakhsh, 24, a reporter with the Afghan Jahan-e Now daily, was sentenced to death in January 2008 by a court in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. He was arrested and imprisoned for downloading and distributing an Iranian article from the Internet that said the prophet Muhammad had ignored the rights of women.

In a statement on its website, Reporters Without Borders said Kambakhsh’s lawyer had confirmed the release and that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had signed a pardon several weeks earlier. Karzai’s office was not immediately available for comment.