By Frances Harrison

Religious affairs reporter



President Karzai says the judiciary will decide Perwiz Kambakhsh's fate

Perwiz Kambakhsh was convicted after a summary trial in the north of the country last month.

He was accused of distributing an article he found on the internet questioning why Muslim men could practise polygamy but not women.

His treatment has sparked an international outcry.

The case against Mr Kambakhsh, an Afghan, was heard behind closed doors and he was denied a defence lawyer. He denies the charges.

Mr Karzai was speaking during a visit to Kabul by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Petition

President Karzai said they had raised the issue of the journalist. It was now a matter for the judiciary, he added.

On Wednesday, Afghanistan's Defence Minister said the legal process was not over yet and he doubted the journalist would be executed.

But reports say tribal elders and clerics in the eastern city of Gardez have called for the government to uphold the death sentence.

A British newspaper, which has collected nearly 70,000 signatures in a petition to save Mr Kambakhsh, quoted his family as saying Taleban prisoners in the same jail attacked him because they thought he had rejected Islam.