Post by Origanalist on Oct 10, 2016 9:49:56 GMT -8
Final appeal set for Pakistani Christian woman facing execution for blasphemy
Asia Bibi has been on death row for six years
Andrew Marszal, delhi Mohammad Zubair Khan, islamabad
7 OCTOBER 2016 • 4:25PM
A Christian woman facing execution for blasphemy in Pakistan has been granted her final chance to appeal next week, after the country’s supreme court set a date for Asia Bibi’s last hearing.
In a case that has gained international infamy, the mother-of-five from rural Punjab was convicted in 2010 for defaming the Prophet Mohammad during an argument with a group of Muslim women over a bowl of water. She has been on death row ever since.
Appeals at lower courts have all failed, before the country's top court temporarily suspended her execution in July 2015.
If Pakistan’s supreme court does not overturn her sentence following arguments heard in Islamabad next Thursday, Mrs Bibi will become the first person to ever be hanged under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.
At least 20 people charged with blasphemy in Pakistan have been murdered, some by their own prison guards, and many more have gone into hiding.
Mrs Bibi’s plight has divided Pakistan, pitting its hardline clerics and their supporters against liberal reformers, and exposing deep fractures in the highly conservative Muslim state.
A farm worker, she was accused of insulting the prophet in June 2009 after an argument broke out over a bowl of water she had been sent to fetch from the well in Ittan Wali village.
Several Muslim women refused to drink from the bowl because they believed it had been made “unclean” by the Christian’s touch.
Five days later, an imam who was not present during the argument accused her of defaming the prophet. Despite insisting she was being persecuted for her faith in a country where Christians face routine harassment and discrimination, Mrs Bibi was sentenced to be hanged the following year.
Two politicians who took up Mrs Bibi’s cause were murdered in 2011. When one of the assassins, Mumtaz Qadri, was himself hanged earlier this year, tens of thousands rallied in Islamabad to proclaim him a hero and a martyr.
Saif-ul Mulook, Mrs Bibi’s lawyer, told The Telegraph that his client had never received a fair trial. The charges against her were the result of a “personal vendetta” between her and the complainant, he said.
Mrs Bibi's family were the only Christians in the village. Of the seven witnesses in the case, five are men who were also not present when the row took place.
continued... www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/07/final-appeal-set-for-pakistani-christian-woman-facing-execution/
Asia Bibi has been on death row for six years
Andrew Marszal, delhi Mohammad Zubair Khan, islamabad
7 OCTOBER 2016 • 4:25PM
A Christian woman facing execution for blasphemy in Pakistan has been granted her final chance to appeal next week, after the country’s supreme court set a date for Asia Bibi’s last hearing.
In a case that has gained international infamy, the mother-of-five from rural Punjab was convicted in 2010 for defaming the Prophet Mohammad during an argument with a group of Muslim women over a bowl of water. She has been on death row ever since.
Appeals at lower courts have all failed, before the country's top court temporarily suspended her execution in July 2015.
If Pakistan’s supreme court does not overturn her sentence following arguments heard in Islamabad next Thursday, Mrs Bibi will become the first person to ever be hanged under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.
At least 20 people charged with blasphemy in Pakistan have been murdered, some by their own prison guards, and many more have gone into hiding.
Mrs Bibi’s plight has divided Pakistan, pitting its hardline clerics and their supporters against liberal reformers, and exposing deep fractures in the highly conservative Muslim state.
A farm worker, she was accused of insulting the prophet in June 2009 after an argument broke out over a bowl of water she had been sent to fetch from the well in Ittan Wali village.
Several Muslim women refused to drink from the bowl because they believed it had been made “unclean” by the Christian’s touch.
Five days later, an imam who was not present during the argument accused her of defaming the prophet. Despite insisting she was being persecuted for her faith in a country where Christians face routine harassment and discrimination, Mrs Bibi was sentenced to be hanged the following year.
Two politicians who took up Mrs Bibi’s cause were murdered in 2011. When one of the assassins, Mumtaz Qadri, was himself hanged earlier this year, tens of thousands rallied in Islamabad to proclaim him a hero and a martyr.
Saif-ul Mulook, Mrs Bibi’s lawyer, told The Telegraph that his client had never received a fair trial. The charges against her were the result of a “personal vendetta” between her and the complainant, he said.
Mrs Bibi's family were the only Christians in the village. Of the seven witnesses in the case, five are men who were also not present when the row took place.
continued... www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/07/final-appeal-set-for-pakistani-christian-woman-facing-execution/