A Pakistani court docket on Thursday overturned the demise sentence of a Christian couple in a blasphemy case, acquitting them for lack of proof after that they had spent seven years on demise row, attorneys mentioned.
A decrease court docket had sentenced Shafqat Emmanuel, a watchman at a manufacturing unit, and his spouse, Shagufta Kausar, to demise in 2014 for allegedly sending derogatory remarks in regards to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in a textual content message to a different man, Khalid Maqsood.
The couple’s lawyer, Saif-ul-Malook, instructed Reuters the Lahore High Court had acquitted the couple within the case within the central city of Toba Tek Singh.
An in depth order from the court docket was anticipated within the subsequent two days, he mentioned.
Prosecution lawyer Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry instructed Reuters that the prosecution would make use of all out there cures towards the choice.
Insulting the Prophet carries a compulsory demise penalty within the predominantly Muslim nation. Pakistan’s blasphemy legal guidelines have lengthy been criticised by international rights teams.
“Today’s choice places an finish to the seven-year lengthy ordeal of a pair who shouldn’t have been convicted nor confronted a demise sentence within the first place,” Amnesty International’s South Asia Deputy Director Dinushika Dissanayake said in a statement, calling on authorities to provide security to the couple and their lawyer.
The acquitted couple was named in a EU Parliament resolution passed in April that called for stripping the trade exemptions given by the bloc to Pakistan’s exports, saying the country had failed to stem rising blasphemy accusations.
Pakistan is often hit by vigilante violence against people accused of blasphemy. Last month, a mob broke into the police station on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad in a bid to lynch two men accused of desecrating a mosque.
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