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Pakistan
- Christian Woman Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy, Files Appeal
Asia Bibi was found guilty of insulting the prophet Muhammad
four years ago after incident in June 2009
Members of
the Pakistan Christian Democratic alliance march during a protest in support of
Asia Bibi in Lahore. Photograph: AFP/Getty
Agence
France-Presse in Lahore – 24 November 2014
A Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to death
for blasphemy has filed an appeal in the country’s top court , her final legal
recourse after being found guilty of insulting the prophet Muhammad four years
ago.
A high court in Lahore confirmed the death sentence of Asia Bibi
last month, dashing hopes the conviction might be quashed or
commuted to a jail term. She has been on death row since November
2010 after being convicted of blasphemy during an argument with a
Muslim woman over a bowl of water.
“On behalf of Asia Bibi I have today filed an
appeal in the supreme court,” her lawyer Saiful Malook said on Monday.
Malook said in the petition his client had asked
the court to reconsider deficiencies in the case including allegedly
manipulated evidence and a delay between the time of the incident and its
investigation by police. He added that the blasphemy claim was concocted by
Bibi’s enemies to target her and had no basis in fact.
“We expect an early hearing of the appeal and
hope that the proceedings will be over in one year,” Malook said.
The allegations against Bibi date back to June
2009, when she was labouring in a field and a row broke out with some Muslim
women she was working with. She was asked to fetch water, but the Muslim women
objected, saying that as a non-Muslim she was unfit to touch the water bowl. A
few days later the women went to a local cleric and put forward the blasphemy
allegations.
Bibi’s husband has also written to
Pakistan’s president, Mamnoon Hussain, to ask for her to be pardoned and
allowed to move to France.
“We are convinced that Asia will only be saved
from being hanged if the venerable President Hussain grants her a pardon. No
one should be killed for drinking a glass of water,” Ashiq Masih wrote in an open letter dated 17
November. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has said the couple are welcome in
the city.
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in the
majority Muslim country, with even unproven allegations often prompting mob
violence. Pakistan has never executed anyone for
blasphemy and has had a de facto moratorium on civilian executions since 2008.
But anyone convicted, or even just accused, of insulting Islam, risks death at
the hands of vigilantes.
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