ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the death sentence awarded to a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, for blasphemy.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar read out a short verdict, exonerating Asia Bibi from blasphemy charges and ordering her immediate release if she was not wanted in another case.
“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 the top judge.
On October 8, the top court had reserved its judgment on the appeal of the Christian mother of four, who in 2010 became the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy law.
This verdict came on an appeal filed by the woman challenging her capital punishment.
Asia Bibi, a mother of five, had been on death row since 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI joined in international calls for her release.
In 2015 her daughter met with Pope Francis, who as the head of the Catholic Church offered prayers for her mother.
During the last hearing on October 8, Bibi’s lawyer Saiful Mulook had told the bench that the incident took place on June 14, 2009 and its case was registered on June 19.
It was then when she was working in a field and was asked to fetch water. Muslim women she was laboring with allegedly objected, saying that as a non-Muslim she was unfit to touch the water bowl.
The women went to a local cleric and accused Bibi of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), a charge so sensitive in the country that anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.
A case was filed against Bibi by an Imam in Katanwala village who alleged that Bibi had confessed to committing blasphemy, the lawyer said.
The charge is punishable by a maximum penalty of death under legislation that rights groups say is routinely abused to settle personal vendettas.
A three-judge special bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel heard Bibi’s 2014 appeal against her conviction and death sentence under section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
But calls for reform have regularly been met with violence and rejected.
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”.
Further, Mulook had said, “Permission was not taken from the district coordination officer (DCO) or the district police officer (DPO) to register the FIR.”
He had added that the Imam in the FIR said that the villagers had not attempted to beat up Bibi.
To this, Justice Khosa had remarked, “From your statements we have gathered that the Imam himself did not witness the incident as it happened and no blasphemous words were said in his presence.”
Justice Nisar had then added, “As per the prayer leader’s statement, a panchayat was held in a house and 1,000 people had gathered for it.”
“The FIR states that Bibi was a Christian preacher, was she really?” the chief justice asked. Mulook responded in the negative and said, “She was never a preacher.”
After hearing the arguments, the top court reserved its judgment on Bibi’s appeal. The chief justice had also directed news channels to not discuss the case.
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