Pakistan: Top court upholds Christian woman's acquittal

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld its ruling to acquit a death row Christian woman accused of insulting Prophet Muhammad, court records and local media reported.

Asiya Bibi, a laborer who had been sentenced to death by a trial court in 2010 for blasphemy, was acquitted by the top court last October sparking countrywide violent protests.

A three-member bench headed by newly appointed Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa rejected the review petition.

Security has been put on high alert across the country fearing another round of protests against the final verdict which sets Bibi free.

She is likely to leave the country as her family fears for safety.

The October protests led by a new Sunni group, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), kept the country shut for five days amid clashes with police and burning of vehicles.

The group’s firebrand leader, Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi, along with scores of other leaders are currently in jail and facing trial for inciting violence.

Khosa was also part of the bench that had upheld the death penalty of an elite police commando who had killed then-Governor of Punjab province Salman Taseer in 2011 in capital Islamabad for speaking in favor of Bibi.

Blasphemy against Islam and Prophet Muhammad is a criminal offense that can carry the death penalty in Pakistan. While the state has never executed anyone under the law, mere allegations have stirred mass protests and violence.

Rights group observe that the blasphemy law is often exploited to settle personal scores against religious minorities and should be annulled.