Afghan reporter sentenced to death

A court in the northern Afghanistan sentenced an Afghan reporter to death Tuesday for defaming Islam.The court found local newspaper reporter Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, guilty of blasphemy.The trial was held behind closed door in Mazar-e-Sharif, the northern city of Balkh province without the reporter’s defense lawyer present. His brother, fellow journalist Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, told Reporters Without Borders: "I saw my brother leave the court. He was very anxious. All the family was, too."Sayed Perwiz was arrested the middle of October. The arrest came after conservative religious leaders contended that one of his article published on Jahan-e-Naw ( the New World) newspaper is against Islam.