‘A Muslim woman was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Pakistani Court after finding her guilty of burning pages of Islamic holy book’, said a prosecutor said on Friday.
‘Individuals convicted of disrespecting religion or religious figures may face the death penalty’, according to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
Mohazib Awais, Government prosecutor stated that Aasiya Bibi, a woman arrested in 2021, faced blasphemy charges following accusations from residents that she had burned pages of the Quran, leading to her arrest.
He further added, The judge announced the verdict Wednesday (March 20) in the eastern city of Lahore’.
‘Bibi, who has the right to appeal, had denied the charge during her trial’, said Mohazib Awais.
A Christian woman with the same name was acquitted of blasphemy in 2019 after she spent eight years on death row in Pakistan.
Later, she moved to Canada to escape death threats from Islamic extremists upon her release. Human rights organisations both domestically and abroad claim that accusations of blasphemy are used as a form of personal vendetta against religious minority and intimidation.
In one such case, a different court in Gujranwala, Punjab province, found two teenagers guilty of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad earlier in March and sentenced one of them death sentence and life in prison to other.
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