OTTAWA - NDP Leader Jack Layton wants Parliament to take a stand in support of an Afghan journalist sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Islam.
In an interview Sunday, Layton complained the Conservative government has been largely silent on the case of Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, convicted by a court in northern Afghanistan two weeks ago.
"We have every right as a country to speak out on this issue," said the NDP chief.
"We have soldiers who have lost their lives on a mission that was supposed to be helping to build democracy. It doesn't get much more fundamental than this."
Neil Hrab, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, said diplomats at the Canadian embassy in Kabul have expressed their concern to the Afghan government about the sentence meted out to Kambaksh, and Ottawa continues to "actively pursue" the matter.
"Canada frequently stresses the need for the Afghan government to fulfil its obligations to promote and protect human rights, including freedom of expression and religious belief," said Hrab.
Layton, however, maintained that a more public expression of Canadian sentiment is needed.
He said he's hoping to get all-party support for a resolution being prepared for tabling in the House of Commons that will condemn the death sentence and call on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to intervene in the case.
Kambaksh, a 23-year-old journalist for New World newspaper and student at Balkh University, was charged with mocking Islam for downloading an article from the Internet and distributing it to fellow students.
The article, which originated in Iran, questioned the role assigned to women by fundamentalist Muslims and asked why men should be allowed to take more than one wife while women can't have more than one husband.
There has been speculation the prosecution was intended to send a message to Kambaksh's brother Yacoubi Brahimi, who also works as a journalist and has written about corruption and human rights abuses among government officials, politicians and warlords in northern Afghanistan.
Brahimi has told western news organizations that Kambaksh had no lawyer to represent him at what he called a "secret trial" held without the family's knowledge.
The Afghan Senate later passed a motion - sponsored by a legislator who is considered a key political ally of President Karzai - that expressed agreement with the death sentence.
Following widespread protests, however, the Senate backtracked on the weekend and withdrew the statement.
The death sentence, which is under appeal, has sparked angry demonstrations in Afghanistan and has been denounced by the Afghan national journalists' union and Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based organization that promotes press freedom.
The French government has also condemned the sentence and the U.S. State Department has said it's "very concerned" and is monitoring the situation.
The controversy comes as Prime Minister Stephen Harper draws up plans for a parliamentary debate and vote on whether to continue Canada's military mission in Afghanistan.
The NDP has long called for an end to the mission while the federal Liberals are struggling to avoid a caucus split on the issue.
