(STRASBOURG) - The European Parliament called Thursday on the Afghan government to free a local journalist condemned to death for blaspheming Islam.

Recalling that the Afghan constitution defends free speech, the Eurodeputies called on the Afghan authorities to do everything possible to prevent Perwiz Kambakhsh from being executed, and to get his case re-examined.

The European parliamentarians urged the Afghan authorities to overturn the sentence on appeal or at least free Kambakhsh via a pardon from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Kambakhsh, 23, was sentenced to death by a court in the northern Afghan province of Balkh in January, raising an outcry from international and Afghan media rights groups.

He had downloaded from the Internet and distributed among his fellow students articles that were said to question some of the tenets of Islam, including those related to the role of women.

The case has been met with dismay in the West, particularly in Washington and Berlin.

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