generalspeaking

Finally ... Asia Bibi Free to Flee Pakistan

"I am really grateful to everybody."
"Now after nine years it is confirmed that I am free and I will be going to hug my daughters."
Asia Bibi, Christian, Pakistan

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Catholic accused of blasphemy, is pictured in a 2010 file photo Photo: CNS photo/Punjab Governor House handout via EPA

"This case does not have as many honest witnesses as it should have had ... and the petitioner has failed to point out any mistakes in the court’s earlier verdict."
"How is this a matter of religion?"
Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa 

"After nine years behind bars for a crime she didn’t commit, it is difficult to see this long-overdue verdict as justice."
"But Bibi should now be free to reunite with her family and seek safety in a country of her choice."
Rimmel Mohydin, Amnesty International’s South Asia campaigner

Finally, on appeal Pakistan's supreme court has upheld its original acquittal of the woman whom global public attention has been riveted on for the past eight years as she languished on death row, convicted in Pakistan of blaspheming against the Prophet Mohammad. Pakistan's Islamist fundamentalists staged numerous violent mass protests after her original acquittal, demanding she be executed to satisfy their outrage that anyone might question the sacred name of the Prophet much less cast aspersions on Islam.

A friend with whom Asia Bibi was temporarily staying not only feared for her life, but his own for sheltering her, asking for anonymity as he related her first thought on hearing the news of her final acquittal: she would soon be enabled to join her daughters in Canada, where asylum was offered to the family. The dire need for circumspection in the interests of safety was made clear by the fact that the Supreme Court judges who freed her, Bibi's lawyer and her family were all recipients of death threats.

Necessitating that a contingent of police and paramilitary Rangers be on hand guarding the courthouse and the area surrounding it in Islamabad when the court once again acquitted Bibi of all charges in a country where blasphemy laws wield the harsh penalty of execution for any who dare question Islam or its Prophet. The mere accusation of blasphemy is enough to ensure that mobs will gather to violently demonstrate, and if the opportunity exists, to kill the blasphemer.

Two high-placed authorities, one a provincial governor who defended Bibi, another a government minority minister who questioned the blasphemy law were both shot and killed in revenge by Islamist fundamentalists. The heightened security presence around the court prevented a renewal of the original clashes when Islamists violently opposed police back in October, as well as the nationwide arrest of hundreds of supporters of radical religious parties the day before the court hearing.

Saif-ul-Mulook, right, the lawyer of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, leaves the Supreme Court building after the court rejected the review appeal against Asia Bibi, in Islamabad on Jan. 29, 2019. (AFP)

Asia Bibi has been confined to protective custody guarded by Pakistani security forces since her original October acquittal, changing hiding places constantly with the knowledge that neighbourhood searches have been carried out from house to house by fanatics whose dearest wish is to murder her and her family. Her lawyer, Saiful Malook, forced to flee Pakistan as a result of virulent death threats, returned to Islamabad to be present for the hearing.

Mr. Malook called the decision of the supreme court validating their original acquittal a victory for the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan, describing the three-judge Supreme Court panel that had "insisted on very strict proofs of blasphemy", finding none, as a deterrent against future false allegations.

Still from video of rampaging, protesting fundamentalist Pakistani Islamists insisting on execution for Asia Bibi

Labels: Acquittal, Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Canada, Pakistan

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, January 31, 2019