Malaysia deports Saudi journalist accused of blasphemy

Malaysia has deported a young Saudi journalist who is wanted in his home country over Twitter posts about the Prophet Mohammad that sparked calls for his execution, an official told the AFP news agency. Hamza Kashgari, who was detained in Malaysia on Thursday after fleeing Saudi Arabia, left the country in the custody of Saudi officials on Sunday, according to a Malaysian government official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity. Kashgari, a 23-year-old newspaper columnist, fled to Muslim-majority Malaysia after making comments on the microblogging site deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, which fuelled a surge of outrage in the kingdom. Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam and is a crime punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. Malaysia s government would not immediately confirm Hamza s deportation, but a Home Ministry statement on Sunday said Kashgari would be sent back to Saudi Arabia. "Malaysia has a long-standing arrangement by which individuals wanted by one country are extradited when detained by the other, and [Kashgari] will be repatriated under this arrangement," the statement said. "The nature of the charges against the individual in this case are a matter for the Saudi Arabian authorities." Clerics and locals in the kingdom have called for Kashgari s death for three comments he made on Twitter on the occasion of the Prophet Muhammad s birthday. "On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more," read one tweet posted on Saturday. All three tweets were later deleted by Kashgari, who received over 30,000 responses within a day of the postings. Kashgari, who had originally apologised for his comments, said in an interview he was being made a "scapegoat for a larger conflict" over his comments.