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Saudi blogger faces execution for Mohammed tweets
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) – Malaysia defended its deportation of a Saudi journalist wanted at home for comments deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.
“Do not look at Malaysia as a safe transit country or a safe haven for those who are wanted by their country of origin,” Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference. Kashgari had been detained at the request of Saudi authorities and denied a Malaysian police official’s earlier claim that Interpol was also involved.
Hamza Kashgari, 23, was detained in Malaysia last week after fleeing Saudi Arabia in fear for his life after a Twitter post about the prophet sparked outrage.
Insulting the Prophet Mohammed is considered blasphemous in Islam and is a crime punishable by execution in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia. Human rights groups had warned that deporting Kashgari would be akin to a death sentence and urged Muslim-majority Malaysia to free him, but Kashgari was repatriated Sunday in the custody of Saudi officials.
Referring to the prophet, Kashgari had tweeted: “I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t understand about you. I will not pray for you.”
Malaysia has no formal extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia and Kashgari’s deportation has been condemned by rights groups. Malaysian rights activist Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, one of a group of lawyers that obtained a court order on Sunday to block the deportation, said the government “illegally” circumvented the order.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
