MADRID, Nov 24: Spain's foreign ministry on Wednesday said Madrid was requesting clemency for an Afghan found guilty of the murder of four journalists, including a Spaniard, in 2001.

A ministry statement said Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos had approached Afghan counterpart Abdullah Abdullah, "to call for the death sentence passed on the killer of Spanish journalist and El Mundo correspondent Julio Fuentes by the Afghan judicial system to be commuted."

The ministry said the request was being made "with the agreement of the widow of Julio Fuentes" and noted that "Spain's position against the death penalty (is) well known." Spain prefers, the statement added, to see the sentence commuted "to the maximum jail term foreseen by Afghan law."

Reza Khan, 29, was sentenced after he admitted belonging to a group of bandits who ambushed Italian reporter Maria Grazia Cutuli of Corriere della Sera, Fuentes and Australian cameraman Harry Burton and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari, both of Reuters, near Jalalabad.

Khan was also convicted of raping one victim - though he denied that charge - as well as killing his own wife in a separate incident. -AFP