An Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for allegedly ’insulting Islam’ had his conviction upheld but his sentence reduced to 20 years in prison by an Afghan central appeal court today.

The prosecution alleged that Sayed Perwez Kambashkh, 24, downloaded from the internet and distributed an article by an Iranian writer questioning some of the tenets of Islam relating women’s rights. He has always denied the charges.

He is alleged to have added three paragraphs to the offending article himself, one of which read: “This is the real face of Islam... the prophet Mohammad wrote verses of the Holy Quran just for his own benefit.”

At his appeal court trial today five professors of Balkh University, where the defendant was a student, claimed that Kambakhsh disrupted classes by asking “anti-Islam and insulting questions.”

Kambakhsh was originally sentenced to death by a local court in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif following his arrest in October 2007.

Following today’s hearing defence lawyer, Mohammad Afzal Shormach Nuristani, said his client would appeal to Afghanistan’s Supreme Court. Mr Nuristani has faced repeated death threats, as has his client.

The case has drawn widespread criticism from human rights organisations and Western governments. Kambakhsh claimed he made a confession after being tortured by officials from the Afghan security services. He claims his accusers were motivated by personal enimities to bring the charges against him.

The proceedings of the original trial were criticised by the European Union amongst others, after it emerged that the trial was held in closed session with only three judges, a court clerk and prosecutor present. Kambakhsh was given only three minutes to defend himself before being sentenced to death.

International observers and human rights groups also attacked today’s appeal proceedings, held in open court.

“We are much concerned about the legal process of the trial,” said Nader Nadery, commissioner of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. “The reaction of the judge seems to be one sided. Kambakhsh’s defence lawyer wasn’t given enough chance to speak.”

One of the witnesses in yesterday’s trial, a student identified only as Hamid, told the court that he made his original statement after he was threatened with expulsion from Balkh University and faced intimidation from members of the Afghan intelligence service.

“There is a big reform process for criminal procedure in Afghanistan, but if you don’t enforce those procedure laws they are not worth anything,” said John Dempsey, an American lawyer who attended the trial on behalf of the Washington thinktank, The United States Institute of Peace. “In this case the procedures were routinely ignored to the detriment of Kambakhsh.”

The trial has aroused similarly strong passions among conservative Afghans.

Mohammad Jawed, a lawyer from Mazar-e-Sharif who also attended today’s trial said: “This judge is against Muslims, this is a very low sentence. He should be hanged. Five teachers from the University of Balkh bore witness that he was against Islam. They saw him downloading and distributing it.”

Afghanistan is a signatury to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which enshrines freedom of speech, expression and religion. However, it is widely held among Afghan lawmakers that the third article of the Afghan Constitution, which forbids anything contrary to the ’beliefs and provisions of Islam’, takes precedence over all other articles.

There have been a number of other recent blasphemy trials in the country.

Dan McNorton, a UN Spokesman, told the Times: “We are closely monitoring the Kambakhsh case. We remain concerned about whether fair trial standards were followed at all stages as well as possible implications of this case for freedom of expression issues.”

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