Asia Bibi awaits judgment on final Supreme Court appeal against “blasphemy” death penalty

Oct 10, 2018 by Andrew Symes

From ACNS.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has heard the final appeal of a Christian mother-of-five who was sentenced to death for blasphemy – her crime was to drink from a water fountain used by Muslims. The conviction and sentence handed down to Asia Bibi has led to international condemnation of the country’s much-abused blasphemy laws. In 2016, members of the Anglican Consultative Council, meeting in Lusaka, said it “stands in solidarity and prayer with Asia Bibi” and asked that “her case be re-investigated and that she be honourably acquitted.” They also expressed their “solidarity and prayer with other victims” of the Pakistan’s blasphemy law.

Bibi has been held in custody since June 2009 after her co-workers said that by drinking water meant for water she had made it ritually unclean. In November 2010 she was sentenced to death and has had numerous appeals postponed.

Hardline Islamists in Pakistan have campaigned against her release. In January 2011, Salman Taseer, a governor of Punjab, said that Bibi was innocent and called for a review of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. In response, he was shot and killed by his own bodyguard. Two months later Shahbaz Bhatti, the country’s Minority Affairs Minister, was ambushed and killed by gunmen near his Islamabad home. He had previously told reporters that he would campaign for Bibi’s release…

…Last week, Bibi’s husband, Ashiq Masih, spoke at an event organised by Aid to the Church in Need at the Catholic Chaplaincy of Lancaster University in north-west England, alongside the couple’s eldest daughter Eisham. “She is psychologically, physically and spiritually strong, having a very strong faith”, Masih told BPCA’s Chairman Wilson Chowdhry. “She is ready and willing to die for Christ”

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