Pakistani Christian Couple's Death Row Appeal Delayed After 6 Years in Prison for Blasphemy

War on Christianity in Pakistan - Like Nowhere Else

By Melissa Barnhart, CP Reporter| 

Christians attend a Good Friday prayer at the Saint Anthony Church in Lahore, Pakistan, April 3, 2015.

| Reuters/Mohsin Raza

A Pakistani Christian couple who've been imprisoned for six years and sentenced to death on false blasphemy charges of sending a text message insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad continue to have their conviction appeal delayed.

Shagufta Kausar and her husband, Shafqat Emmanuel, who is partially paralyzed, were accused by a local imam of committing blasphemy by sending him an offensive text message in 2013.

Maulvi Mohammed Hussain, a leader at a mosque in the town of Gojra in Punjab province, claimed that Emmanuel used his wife's cellphone to send an anti-Islamic text message. He later claimed other messages followed. 

Hussain said he was praying when he received the offensive text message from an unknown number.

His wife's cellphone is an unknown number?

The Muslim cleric reportedly showed the text message to two other imams before approaching his counsel for legal proceedings. He and his lawyer later claimed they both received subsequent blasphemous messages.

Because he sent it to them?

Police registered the blasphemy case following the imam's complaint, and the couple were arrested on July 21, 2013. They were charged with "insulting the Quran" and "insulting the prophet."

They were sentenced to separate prisons in 2014. 

According to some reports, "[Kauser] is being held in the same prison cell Asia Bibi was held in before her release," Will Stark, regional manager for South Asia at International Christian Concern, told The Christian Post on Wednesday.

"In regards to Shafqat, his medical condition has deteriorated significantly during his imprisonment," Stark added. "This is because the jail does not provide facilities for him, as someone partially paralyzed. Bedsores and lack of nutrition are definitely issues I have seen reported specifically in regards to Shafqat’s case."

According to the BBC, a final hearing before the Lahore High Court was scheduled for Wednesday. However, the hearing was delayed and a new hearing date will be announced. 

Kausar's brother, Joseph, told the BBC that his sister and her husband are not only innocent, but he believes they aren't even literate enough to have written the text messages.

Joseph also said his brother-in-law had been tortured and forced to make a false confession.

"He told me the policeman hit [him] so hard that his leg was broken," Joseph was quoted as saying.

The text messages were also alleged to have been written in English. Aside from being illiterate, Shafqat and Shagufta are not familiar with the English language — written or spoken.

The couple's lawyer, Saif ul Malook, who also assisted in the appeal of Asia Bibi's blasphemy case, said the charges against Kausar and Emmanuel are "deeply flawed" and "weaker" than those levied against Bibi.

Although the phone was registered in Kausar's name, Malook told the BBC that "in their trial, they suggested a Christian neighbor they had argued with might have purchased a SIM card in Kausar's name and sent the messages in order to frame them."

That might explain the imam not knowing his wife's phone number.

In 2014, Nadeem Hassan, who's also representing the couple at the high court, said the offending messages were sent from a phone that had been lost. He further explained that a "bogus SIM card" had been presented as evidence against the couple, The Telegraph reported.

Hassan told ICC last year that the allegation is "based on religious hatred and is being used to settle personal grudges.” 

Before her arrest, Kausar worked as a cleaner at a Christian school. Emmanuel has been paralyzed from the waist down since 2004, following an accident that fractured his spine. At the time of the accident, they were living with their four young children in a church compound. 

The children continue to remain in hiding as their parents’ case continues, Stark said.

“Like many relatives of Christians accused of blasphemy, they live in fear that their parents’ blasphemy accusation may cause extremists to attack them,” he added.

And with good reason. See story immediately below.

Malook said the couple needs the same international support that Bibi received during the years she waited for her appeal to be heard. And if they're acquitted, he said they will also need to be granted asylum.

While no one has yet been executed on blasphemy charges, people who've been accused of the crime have been killed by retaliatory mob violence. Allegations of blasphemy are frequently lodged to settle personal disputes and to discriminate against religious minorities.

Christians make up just 1.6% of the country's population.

Last year, Asia Bible was acquitted by Pakistan's Supreme Court of blasphemy charges after she languished on death row for more than eight years. Bibi has since written a book about her ordeal.

Pakistan, a 96% Muslim-majority country, ranks as the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA's 2020 World Watch List. In 2018, Pakistan was also named by the U.S. State Department as a "country of particular concern" for religious freedom violations.

The couple's appeal hearing has been rescheduled for June 22.

“Brother-in-Law of Christian Asia Bibi, Killed in Pakistan,”

3rd Murder associated with Asia Bibi - 2 others were influential politicians

Islamic Insanity

by Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife, May 28, 2020:

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife) – The brother-in-law of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who faced the death penalty for “blasphemy” against Islam, has been killed, Christians confirmed Wednesday, May 27.

The body of Younas Masih, 50, was reportedly found Monday, May 25, in a furrow in Dao Ki Mallian village in the Sheikhupura district of Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Asia Bibi

The father of two was married to Najma Bibi, the younger sister of Asia Bibi, who was eventually acquitted of blasphemy in 2018 after spending eight years on death row in Pakistan.

“He used to take care of the cattle at the farmhouse of a local landlord. We had been searching for him after he went missing a day earlier. His throat was slit. We handed over his body to the police,” the victim’s brother George Masih said in published remarks.

Church sources said police had detained the widow and a local Muslim for alleged involvement in the murder. Both had an extramarital affair, local Christians said. The suspects were named as Najma Bibi and Irfan Dogar.

CONFESSING CRIME

Police were quoted as saying they had confessed to the crime, and the victim’s body was sent to a morgue for an autopsy.

It is not the first time that somebody associated with Asia Bibi has been murdered. In 2011, Salman Taseer, the influential governor of Punjab, was assassinated after he appealed for the pardon of Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad.

A month later, Religious Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian who spoke out against the blasphemy legislation, was shot dead in Islamabad, the capital.

Bibi, 47, was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 after defending her faith in Christ after fellow farmworkers did not want to share water with her. Besides “insulting Prophet Muhammad,” the mother-of-five was accused “of contaminating” the well by Muslims.

Some Muslims consider Christians dirty and do not drink water using the same container. Bibi, whose full name is Aasia Noreen, was convicted and sentenced to death for blasphemy, charges she denied….

Asia Bibi is safely living in Canada, her entire family should join her. In fact, I am inclined to believe that all Christians should leave Pakistan and let it suffer the consequences complete rejection of He Who is our Judge and Maker.

Christian Woman Released from Pakistan Blasphemy Case Travels to Canada

Welcome to Canada Asia Bibi

May the Lord protect you from Islamic insanity

Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who spent eight years on death row for blasphemy in Pakistan, has flown to Canada to be reunited with her family. The news was welcomed on Twitter, with users posting messages of support and delight.

“It is a big day,” Bibi’s lawyer Saiful Malook said. “Justice has been dispensed.”

 . @MarleneSchiappa, France’s equality minister,confirms that #AsiaBibi is now safe and free in her movement.Great news for Asia,her family and all humanists.This is a strong message to all fanatics for whom it’s easier to kill than to accept a different opinion.Bravo et merci 🙏🏻

@HillelNeuer

Bravo to millions worldwide who were neither silent nor indifferent. 

There were so many Christians who prayed, and people of all beliefs who spoke out, for one innocent woman imprisoned in Pakistan.

I especially salute @FreeAsiaBiBi, who posted 84,000 tweets to save #AsiaBibi.

Her reunion with her four daughters in Ottawa concludes a nine-year saga for the Roman Catholic farm laborer, from Ittanwala near Lahore, who was accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed by a group of Muslim women following a row over a cup of water in June 2009.

Geert Wilders

 Fantastic news! Brave christian hero #AsiaBibi free now after leaving barbaric #Pakistan.

Mehreen Zahra-Malik

“A great relief this shameful ordeal has finally come to an end & #AsiaBibi and her family are safe,” said Omar Waraich at @Amnesty International. “She should never have been imprisoned let alone endured constant threats to her life.”

A local mosque broadcast the allegations levelled against her and she was subsequently dragged from her home and beaten by a mob before being taken into custody. She was sentenced to death in 2010.

Mahwash Ajaz

Stay safe #AsiaBibi. May we make #Pakistan a better place for those who are vulnerable, who are weak & those who deserve protection from oppressive forces anywhere.

Andrew Stroehlein

It is Pakistan’s eternal shame that the country could not provide the tolerant & safe society that #AsiaBibi and her family (and all people) deserve.

Throughout her time in prison, Bibi received support both internationally and from within Pakistan’s own government, with fatal consequences. The governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards in 2011 after he appealed to the Pakistani president to pardon her. The bodyguard was executed over the crime in 2016.

In addition, Shahbaz Bhatti, who was the federal minister for minority affairs at the time, was shot dead by self-proclaimed Taliban gunmen in March 2011 after he called for the reform of blasphemy laws and declared his support for Bibi.

Islamic madness reigns supreme in Pakistan.

Bibi was finally released from prison in 2018 following her acquittal by the Supreme Court which quashed the blasphemy sentence citing unreliable evidence and an alleged confession issued before a crowd that was “threatening to kill her.”

Her acquittal sparked an outbreak of violence and angry demonstrations on the streets of Islamabad and Karachi as armed mobs pelted police and traffic with stones.

The hardline conservative Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) protested for three days and forced the government to reconsider the acquittal. Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld the verdict in January.

Meanwhile, Bibi was kept in a secret location while arrangements were made for her safe departure from the country where she was held prisoner on death row for eight years.

At least 65 people have reportedly been killed for blasphemy in Pakistan since 1990.

Top Pakistan Court Upholds Christian Woman's Blasphemy Acquittal

A Rare Win in the War on Christianity

Move could pave way for Asia Bibi to seek asylum in Canada

The Associated Press 

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman, sits next to the governor of Punjab province after visiting her in jail on Nov. 20, 2010. Her conviction for making derogatory remarks about Islam was overturned last October. (Asad Karim/Reuters)

Pakistan's top court on Tuesday upheld its acquittal of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, clearing the last legal hurdle and freeing Asia Bibi to leave the country in a move that dealt a blow to radical Islamists who had demanded her execution.

Following the landmark decision, Bibi will finally be able to join her daughters, who earlier fled to Canada where they have been given asylum.

Bibi's lawyer, Saiful Malook, said in an op-ed published by the Washington Post last month that his client's most likely destination would be Canada if she were allowed to leave Pakistan.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in November that talks were underway with Pakistani officials over the case, but he could not say more because of "a delicate domestic context."

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said in an emailed statement that "Canada is prepared to do everything we can to ensure the safety of Asia Bibi."

Malook, who returned to Islamabad after fleeing the country amid death threats, called the court decision a victory for Pakistan's Constitution and rule of law. The three-judge Supreme Court panel had "insisted on very strict proofs of blasphemy" and found none, he said.

Pakistan's Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, who led the panel of judges, dismissed the petition filed by radical religious leaders. The extremists had petitioned the court to overturn its acquittal and send her back to prison for execution. He (Khosa) said in court that Bibi's accusers were guilty of perjury and if the case had not been so sensitive, they should have been jailed for life.

"The image of Islam we are showing to the world gives me much grief and sorrow," Khosa said.

Bibi, who spent eight years on death row and has been under guard at a secret place since her acquittal last October, was overjoyed at the news she heard over the TV.

"'I am really gratefully to everybody. Now after nine years it is confirmed that I am free and I will be going to hug my daughters,'" a friend quoted Bibi as saying. The friend spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, fearing for his safety.

Following her October acquittal, radical religious parties took to the streets to protest, calling for the killing of judges who acquitted Bibi and for the overthrow of Prime Minister Imran Khan's government. They also filed the last-minute appeal for a review of the Supreme Court acquittal.

The protests were spearheaded by the radical Tehreek-e-Labbaik party, whose single-point agenda is protection of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

Maybe they should start trying to protect Islam from liars who abuse the law to settle personal grievances. As the judge said, that would show Islam in a much better light. The pattern of mass hysteria at the mere suggestion of blasphemy belongs in the 7th century, not the 21st.

Controversial blasphemy law

Bibi's case goes to the core of one of Pakistan's most controversial issues — the blasphemy law, often used to settle scores or intimidate followers of minority religions, including minority Shia Muslims. A charge of insulting Islam can bring the death penalty.

But the accusation on its own is sometimes enough to whip up vengeful mobs, even if the courts acquit defendants. A provincial governor who defended Bibi was shot and killed, as was a government minority minister who dared question the blasphemy law.

Bibi, who always insisted that she was innocent, has said she will leave the country as soon as her legal battles are over. Her lawyer, who fled the country after receiving death threats, returned to Pakistan for the final review.

Bibi's ordeal began on a hot day in 2009 when she brought water to fellow farmhands who refused to drink from the same container as a Christian woman. Two of her fellow farm workers argued with Bibi and later accused her of insulting Islam's Prophet.

Students from a Muslim seminary shout slogans as they demand punishment for Bibi during a rally in Karachi on Nov. 26, 2010. (Athar Hussain/Reuters)

Following protests after Bibi's acquittal, the authorities arrested radical clerics Khadim Hussain Rizvi and Mohammad Afzal Qadri, both leaders of the Tehreekk-e-Labbaik party, and several of their followers for destroying public property during rallies against Bibi and for inciting their followers to violence. The clerics and the others remain in custody.

The cleric petitioning the court for Bibi's return to death row, Qari Salam, is linked with Rizvi's Tehreek-e-Labbaik party.

The party said Monday it will not accept any decision in favour of Bibi's release and asked its followers to prepare for more mass protests.

Pakistani police stepped up security around the Supreme Court in Islamabad ahead of its decision Tuesday.

Mass hysteria is easy to invoke when the whole country is made up of radical Muslims. Imran Khan needs a lot of prayer if he is going to bring Pakistan into the 20th century. He needs a spectacular miracle to bring it into the 21st century.

Pakistan Blasphemy Case: Asia Bibi Freed From Jail

Will this young Christian woman be able to escape

the Islamic Insanity that is Pakistan?

A Pakistani Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy after spending eight years on death row has been freed from prison, her lawyer says.

Some reports say Asia Bibi has boarded a plane but its destination was not known.

The Supreme Court ruling sparked protests from Islamists and the government had said it would bar her from leaving Pakistan.

Her husband had said they were in danger and pleaded for asylum.

Asia Bibi, a mother-of-five, was released from prison in the city of Multan, her lawyer Saif Mulook said.

Also known as Asia Noreen, she was convicted in 2010 of insulting the Prophet Muhammad during a row with neighbours.

Several countries have offered her asylum.

The Pakistani government has said it will start legal proceedings to prevent her going abroad after agreeing the measure to end the violent protests.

Many of the protesters were hardliners who support strong blasphemy laws and called for Asia Bibi to be hanged.

One Islamist leader said all three Supreme Court judges also "deserved to be killed".

Yes, because you would not want Pakistan to enter the 2nd millennium, let alone the 3rd. I have hopes for the new Prime Minister, but he has an extraordinary problem in dealing with Islamic Insanity.

A spokesman for the hardline Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party said Asia Bibi's release was in breach of their deal with the government.

"The rulers have showed their dishonesty," TLP spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi told Reuters.

The deal also saw officials agree not to block a petition for the Supreme Court to evaluate Asia Bibi's acquittal in the light of Islamic Sharia law.

What was Asia Bibi accused of?

The trial stems from an argument Asia Bibi had with a group of women in June 2009.

They were harvesting fruit when a row broke out about a bucket of water. The women said that because she had used a cup, they could no longer touch it, as her faith had made it unclean.

Prosecutors alleged that in the row which followed, the women said Asia Bibi should convert to Islam and that she made offensive comments about the Prophet Muhammad in response.

She was later beaten up at her home, during which her accusers say she confessed to blasphemy. She was arrested after a police investigation.

Acquitting her, the Supreme Court said that the case was based on unreliable evidence and her confession was delivered in front of a crowd "threatening to kill her".

Why is this case so divisive?

Islam is Pakistan's national religion and underpins its legal system. Public support for the strict blasphemy laws is strong.

Hard-line politicians have often backed severe punishments, partly as a way of shoring up their support base.

But critics say the laws have often been used to exact revenge after personal disputes, and that convictions are based on thin evidence.

How many do not ever make it to trial as mass hysteria sometimes results in the immediate murder of the accused, often in the most horrific manner?

The vast majority of those convicted are Muslims or members of the Ahmadi community, but since the 1990s scores of Christians have been convicted. They make up just 1.6% of the population.

The Christian community has been targeted by numerous attacks in recent years, leaving many feeling vulnerable to a climate of intolerance.

Since 1990, at least 65 people have reportedly been killed in Pakistan over claims of blasphemy.

Please pray for Asia and her family, that they will indeed escape Pakistan and find refuge in a safe country, if one exists. 

'HANG THE INFIDEL!' - Islamic Insanity Rises Against Christian Woman in Pakistan

Hundreds of Islamist extremists rally in Pakistan to demand death sentence for Christian woman convicted of insulting Prophet Mohammed

Asia Bibi was put on death row in 2010 after being accused of blasphemy

in a row over a water container

By Gemma Mullin, The Sun

Asia Bibi was put on death row in 2010 after she was accused of blasphemy during a row over a water container by fellow farmworkers in the capital of Lahore.

Chritsian Asia Bibi was put on death row in 2010 after she was convicted of insulting Prophet Mohammed

Chanting "Hang infidel Asia," activists from the Tehreek-e-Labbaik party also rallied in other cities on Friday, threatening nationwide protests if authorities free the woman.

Pakistan's Supreme Court earlier this week postponed ruling on her final appeal and her lawyers are hopeful of an acquittal arguing she was falsely accused.

That decision has angered Islamists who want her to be publicly hanged - making her the first person to be executed for blasphemy in Pakistan.

Bibi's first appeal was dismissed by a Lahore High Court in 2014, but the Supreme Court stayed her execution in 2015.

Protesters marched with banners demanding Asia was hanged for 'insulting the Prophet Mohammed' EPA

Hundreds of Islamists are seen at a rally in Lahore, Pakistan, to pressure judges to uphold a death sentence

for a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy EPA

Her husband Ashiq Mesih, right, and their daughter Eisham Ashiq, speak during an interview

in London on Friday AFP OR LICENSORS

The charge against Bibi dates back to a hot day in 2009 when she went to get water for her and her fellow farmworkers.

Two Muslim women refused to take a drink from a container used by a Christian.

A few days later, a mob accused her of blasphemy and she was convicted and sentenced to death.

Bibi's lawyer, Saiful Malook, argued that the many contradictions in witnesses' statements tainted the evidence.

 In 2009 when Asia went to get water for her and her fellow farmworkers and the women refused to

share a drink from a container used by a Christian

The charge against Bibi dates back to a hot day in 2009 when she sipped from a Muslim woman's water bottle EPA

Supporters of a religious political party Tehrik Labaik Ya Rasool Allah shout slogans during a protest

against Christian woman Asia Bibi EPA

 Hundreds of Islamist extremists have rallied in Pakistan to demand the death sentence EPA

Supporters of a political party Tehrik Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) gathered in Pakistan on Friday EPA

The two Muslim women who levelled the charges against Bibi denied they were quarrelling with her, saying her outbursts against Islam were unprovoked.

Yet several independent witnesses who gave statements recounted a cantankerous exchange between the women.

The prosecution's case centred mostly on religious texts that vilify those who make blasphemous statements.

Ahead of the hearing, Malook expressed optimism that he would win the last legal appeal for Bibi.

Activists want Asia to be hanged - it would be the first execution for blasphemy in Pakistan EPA

Hundreds of supporters of TLYR gathered in different Pakistani cities demanded the Supreme Court

of Pakistan to uphold the death sentence EPA

Activists rallied until dusk on Friday EPA

But if not, he planned to seek a review, which could take years to complete.

He said: "I am a 100 percent sure she will be acquitted. She has a very good case."

Bibi's case has generated international outrage, but within Pakistan it has fired up radical Islamists, who use the blasphemy law to rally supporters and intimidate mainstream political parties.

Members of Pakistan's religious minorities have campaigned against the law, which they say is invoked to justify attacks on them.

Saiful Malook, left, defense lawyer for Asia Bibi, leaves the Supreme court with a bodyguard in
Islamabad, Pakistan AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

Asia Bibi, seen here in a file image from 2010, was put on death row

after she was accused of blasphemy AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

For them, Bibi's case is seen as a watershed - and her husband recently travelled to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis.

Joseph Francis, an activist for Pakistan's Christians, said France, Spain and Germany have all offered to welcome Bibi should she be acquitted.

But Khadim Hussein Rizvi, the leader of a radical Islamist party, warned after the postponement that "no blasphemer will be able to escape punishment".

Neither will false accusers escape punishment. Asia, should the government give in to this hysterical mob, will go immediately into the presence of the living God. Her accusers and this hysterical mob who insists on her death will never have the privilege of seeing her again, ever. Nevertheless, please pray for her and her family.

I wonder if this is a political ploy to test Prime Minister Khan's commitment to Islam and Sharia? Or, is it just another of many examples of Islamic insanity and hysteria?