Pakistani Christian on death row for
blasphemy has sentence overturnedPakistani Christian who spent eight years on death row for blasphemy has her death sentence overturned, sparking huge protests from Muslims demanding she is hanged Mother-of-five Asia Bibi, 53, from Punjab, Pakistan, on death row since 2010
Accused of insulting Prophet Mohammed during an argument over cup of water
Supreme Court announced Wednesday that her conviction had been overturned
Hardline Islamists protested, demanding that she be executed for alleged crime
A Christian Pakistani woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, after allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed during an argument over a cup of water, has had her conviction overturned.
Asia Bibi, 53, who has been on death row since 2010, would have become the first person executed for blasphemy in Pakistan, and her case has incited deadly violence in the Muslim-majority country.
Moments after the Supreme Court overturned the conviction, protests erupted in several major cities across Pakistan, where thousands of Islamists demanded that
Ms Bibi be hanged.
Free woman: Asia Bibi, 53, has been on death row since 2010, after being accused of insulting Islam during an argument over a water bowl with a group of Muslim women in Punjab
Protest: Supporters of a hardline Islamist party held a protest in Lahore after Ms Bibi's conviction was overturned on Wednesday
Protest in Lahore as Asia Bibi has death sentence overturned
The leader of the hard-line Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party also called for the death of the Supreme Court judges who overturned the conviction, and for the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to be ousted.
'The patron in chief of TLP, Muhammad Afzal Qadri, has issued the edict that says the chief justice and all those who ordered the release of Asia deserve death,' said party spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi.
Imran Khan hit back at the hardliners and appealed for calm after the extremists called for the killing of the Supreme Court justices.
'They are inciting you for their own political gain, you should not get trapped by them for the sake of the country, they are doing no service to Islam,' Khan said in a televised broadcast.
Supporters of the TLP gathered in Lahore staged a protest chanting slogans including 'Hang Asia'.
Approximately a thousand club-wielding demonstrators have been blocking Islamabad's main highway, as several roads in the port city of Karachi were barricaded by protesters sparking chaotic traffic jams.
Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) supporters chant slogans during a protest against the court decision to overturn the conviction
Shocking: A young boy takes part in the protests by Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) supporters in Karachi
Across the nation: TLP supporters block the road carrying placards demanding that Asia Bibi should be hanged in Faisalabad on Wednesday
Threats: A poster carried at a protest in Karachi shows Ms Bibi's burning head in a noose
A TLP holds a placard reading 'The only punishment for prophet's blasphemer is to sever the head' during a protest in Islamabad
Pakistan protesters and religious students listen to their leaders during a rally in Islamabad
Spreading hatred: TLP supporters block the road during a protest against the Supreme Court decision to overturn Ms Bibi's conviction in Karachi
'The appeal is allowed. She has been acquitted. The judgement of high court as well as trial court is reversed. Her conviction is set aside,' said Pakistan's Chief Justice Saqib Nisar in the ruling.
Ms Bibi appeared to be in state of disbelief after hearing the decision from her lawyer.
'I can't believe what I am hearing, will I go out now? Will they let me out, really?' Ms Bibi told AFP by phone from prison after the ruling. 'I just don't know what to say, I am very happy, I can't believe it.'
Ms Bibi was set to be released immediately according to the court, although there has been no word if any security arrangements were being made for her protection.
As the good news reached Ms Bibi's family, her daughter, Eisham Ashiq, 18, said: 'I can't wait to hug my mother. I am so happy.'
Speaking through an interpreter to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Ms Bibi's husband Ashiq Masih, added 'We are very happy. This is wonderful news.
'We thank God very much that he's heard our prayers – and the prayers of so many people who have longed for Asia Bibi's release over all these years of suffering and anguish.'
What is next: Ms Bibi is set to be freed from prison, but the family has said it is going to be too dangerous for them to stay in Pakistan
Police ready to tackle protestors asking Asia Bibi's death sentence
Her legal team celebrated the court's decision amid beefed-up security in Islamabad.
FREE BUT IN DANGER: ASIA BIBI'S FAMILY SAY THEY NEED TO FLEEAsia Bibi may now be a free woman, but her family has said they will have to leave Pakistan for their own safety.
Blasphemy is a charge so sensitive in Pakistan that anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.
Ms Bibi's family and their supporters fear that she would be targeted by Islamists unless she gets protection from the moment she leaves prison.
Her husband Ashiq Masih said:'The circumstances are such that she would be unable to live in Pakistan as a free woman. She would not survive.'
'Living in Pakistan for us is very difficult. We don't go out of our home and if we go, we come out very carefully.'
Speaking to MailOnline via an interpreter earlier this month, the family expressed hope that they might be able to go to a safe country such as the UK.
'The verdict has shown that the poor, the minorities and the lowest segments of society can get justice in this country despite its shortcomings,' Bibi's lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook told AFP.
During the appeal hearing on October 8, a three-member panel of Supreme Court justices appeared to question the case against her, with Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, considered Pakistan's top expert in criminal law, listing flaws in the proceedings.
'I don't see any derogatory remarks vis-a-vis the holy Koran as per the FIR,' added Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, referring to the initial complaint filed in the case.
Ms Bibi's case outraged Christians worldwide and has been a source of division within Pakistan, where two politicians who sought to help her were assassinated, including Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who was shot by his own bodyguard.
The allegations against Ms Bibi date back to 2009, when she was working in a field near her home village in Sheikhupura, Punjab and was asked to fetch water.
The Muslim women she was labouring with objected, saying that as a non-Muslim Ms Bibi was unfit to drink from the same water bowl as them.
Ms Bibi would later say that the women insulted her religion, to which she responded: 'I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind?'
This prompted the Muslim women to go to a local imam and accuse Ms Bibi of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed.
Before Ms Bibi could be arrested on any official charges, a violent mob descended on their family home, and beat Ms Bibi up in front of her children.
The abuse was so violent, police were called to the scene, but after rescuing the mother-of-five, they arrested her and threw her in jail - and a year later she was convicted of blasphemy.
She has been held in solitary confinement since her arrest and was told to remain so following her conviction in 2010 for her own safety due to the risk of Muslim prisoners attacking her.
Blasphemy is a charge so sensitive in Pakistan that anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.
The charge is punishable by a maximum penalty of death under legislation that rights groups say is routinely abused by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores.
The law does not define what blasphemy constitutes, and evidence is often not reproduced in court for fear of committing a fresh offence.
Despite this, calls for reform of the blasphemy law have regularly been met with violence and rejected.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan launched a wholehearted defence of the laws during his election campaign earlier this year, vowing his party 'fully' supports the legislation and 'will defend it'.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 2:41 pm