{UAH} “This is the most wonderful moment in my life. I want to thank God.- ASIA BIBI'S DAUGHTER

Christian woman Asia Bibi spared death sentence in Pakistan after blasphemy conviction overturned

Save

254

Asia Bibi was sentenced in 2010 CREDIT: REUTERS

•  Colin Freeman 
 
• Ben Farmer, islamabad

31 OCTOBER 2018 • 9:09AM

Asia Bibi, the Christian woman facing execution for blasphemy in Pakistan, has had her conviction overturned by the country's highest court.

In a ruling that will angered the country's Islamic hardliners, Mrs Bibi, 47, was told she would no longer face the gallows after nearly a decade on death row.

Extremist religious groups immediately condemned the decision, called for the death of the judges and blocked highways in protest.

The mother-of-four was convicted in 2010 of defaming the Prophet Mohammad during a row with Muslim women over drinking water as they picked berries in their village.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

Her plight led to international condemnation of Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws, with Pope Benedict XVI publicly calling for the charges against her to be dismissed. 

Militant Islamic clerics, however, put a 5,000 Euro bounty on her head, while two prominent liberal Pakistani politicians who came to her defence have also been assassinated.

Mrs Bibi appeared to be in state of disbelief after hearing the decision from her lawyer.

"I can't believe what I am hearing, will I go out now? Will they let me out, really?" Bibi told AFP by phone from prison after the ruling on Wednesday. "I just don't know what to say, I am very happy, I can't believe it."

The ruling was welcomed by Mrs Bibi's family, who have spent years in hiding as a result of death threats over the case.

Asia Bibi's conviction was quashed at the Supreme Court CREDIT: AP

Asia Bibi's daughter, 18-year-old Eisham Ashiq, said: "This is the most wonderful moment in my life. I want to thank God.

"I want to hug my mother and then celebrate with my family. I am grateful to God for listening to our prayers."

"We are very happy," added her husband Ashiq Masih in a statement via the Christian charity Aid to the Church in Need.

The former brickmaker said: "We thank God very much that he's heard our prayers – and the prayers of so many people who have longed for Asia Bibi's release over all these years of suffering and anguish."

An illiterate farm worker, Mrs Bibi scraped a living as a labourer and fruit picker in Ittan Wali, a village in the Punjab that was home to just three other Christian families.

One hot day in June 2009, she went to pick berries on a farm with a number of Muslim women neighbours, who asked her to fetch them a bucket of drinking water from a well. One of them then complained that Mrs Bibi had already drunk several times from the bucket with a metal cup, saying "This Christian has dirtied the water".

Heated words were then exchanged, during which Mrs Bibi is alleged to have told her neighbours: "Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind?"

Hardline religious parties had threatened to paralyse Pakistan with protests if Asia Bibi was not executed CREDIT: AFP

Mrs Bibi claims the neighbours returned the insults in kind, saying Jesus was "a bastard" without a proper father.  

Her neighbours then attacked her mob-handed, spitting in her face and beating her in front of her nine-year-old daughter, Eisham.

"I was also beaten badly by the crowd - it was terrifying," Eisham, now 18, told The Telegraph. "All my mother had done was take a drink of water because she was thirsty." 

The following day, a much larger crowd dragged her to a village mullah, who told her she had to either convert to Islam or die. She was then beaten almost unconscious with sticks before being thrown in jail, where she was sentenced 17 months later to death by hanging.

But the panel of three supreme court justices allowed her appeal after finding flaws in her conviction.

"She has been acquitted. The judgement of high court as well as trial court is reversed. Her conviction is set aside," said Pakistan's Chief Justice Saqib Nisar in the ruling.

Critics of Pakistan's blasphemy laws have long claimed that they are open to abuse, and often used by accusers simply to settle petty scores or oppress religious minorities.

Pakistani paramilitary soldiers stand guard outside the Supreme Court building in IslamabadCREDIT: AFP

Since her conviction, Mrs Bibi has spent her time in a filthy, 6ft by 9ft death row cell where she lives in fear of attack from other inmates. Her own jailers, she claims, have laughingly told her that she "deserves to swing".

"I have been to visit my mother in jail, and she asks the people of Britain to remember her in their prayers," Eisham added. "She needs to be back with her family."

The case has become a major flashpoint in Pakistan between its powerful hardline religious lobby and more Western-minded politicians. 

In 2011, the liberal governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, and the Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, were both murdered for speaking out on Mrs Bibi's behalf and calling for reform of the blasphemy laws.

The bodyguard who killed Mr Taseer, Mumtaz Qadri, was later executed but became a posthumous hero among hardliners. Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, the party that has threatened the judges in Mrs Bibis' case, was set up in his honour. 

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com