Pakistan: Hanging of Christian Couple is Forgiven, Case of Insulting the Prophet Mohammad

The couple's lawyer told last year that they had argued in the lawsuit that the couple had some dispute with a Christian neighbor.
Image Credit: BBC News
Image Credit: BBC News

Shagufta Kausar and her husband Shafqat Emmanuel were sentenced in 2014 for insulting Prophet Muhammad. The couple's lawyer Saif Al Malooq told on Thursday that the Lahore High Court has acquitted both of them. At the same time, the prosecution told the news agency Reuters that this decision will be challenged further.

In Pakistan, the crime of blasphemy can carry the death penalty. Although, till date no one has been hanged for this crime, but after being accused of blasphemy, dozens of people have been victims of murder at the hands of the mob.

Talking to news agency AFP, Malook said, 'I am extremely happy that we have been able to release the couple, who are some of the most helpless people in our society.' He has expressed hope that these people will be released after the court order is issued next week.

Human rights organizations have welcomed the decision.

Amnesty International's deputy director of South Asia, Dinushika Dissanayake, said in a statement: "This decision puts an end to the struggle of the couple, who have been on trial for seven years. The couple should not have been sentenced to death in a previous court."

Image Credit: BBC News
Image Credit: BBC News

What was the charge?

The married couple was sentenced to death in 2014 for blasphemy. He was accused of sending a derogatory message to a local imam on the phone about the Prophet Muhammad. The number from which the message was sent was registered in the name of Kausar.

Kausar's brother had said in a conversation last year that this couple is innocent. He had expressed doubts about the couple being educated enough to send a derogatory message.

Kausar works as a caregiver in a Christian school. Her husband is partially paralyzed. Human rights organizations believe that a lot of allegations of blasphemy are made in Pakistan for matters of mutual enmity and targeting religious minorities.

Image Credit: BBC News
Image Credit: BBC News

The couple's lawyer told last year that they had argued in the lawsuit that the couple had some dispute with a Christian neighbor. He may have bought a SIM card in the name of Kausar and sent a blasphemy message from that number to implicate him.

In April, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Pakistan for failing to protect religious minorities. At the heart of this proposal was the case of Kausar and Emmanuel.

In Pakistan, sentences for blasphemy offenses are often overturned

Aasiya Bibi had left Pakistan after being acquitted by the Supreme Court last year. He was imprisoned for more than a decade on charges of blasphemy. This decision of the Supreme Court was violently opposed by all the fundamentalist organizations.

Christians in Pakistan

Christians constitute 1.6 percent of Muslim-majority Pakistan. Most of them are descendants of Hindus who converted to Christianity during British rule. Many of these were people who converted to Christians to overcome their perceived low status.

Many of them come from the poorest sections of Pakistan. The American war in Afghanistan has also led to an increase in anger against Christians and to clamp down on them under blasphemy laws.

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