[ad_1]
Receive instant alerts when news about your actions unfolds. Claim your free 2 week trial at StreetInsider Premium right here.
By Philip Pullella
ROME (Reuters) – Italy on Tuesday said it would help a Pakistani Christian leave her country, her life being in danger following accusations of blasphemy against Islam that sentenced her to death. to eight years in prison.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted Asia Bibi last month, but this decision triggered mbad demonstrations. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, said that they could be murdered by Islamists. The authorities have indicated that they would prohibit Bibi from traveling abroad.
The case has galvanized Christian groups and human rights outraged by the country's treatment of religious minorities, including its small Christian population.
"I want women and children whose lives are in danger to have a secure future, in our country or in other Western countries, so I will do all that is humanly possible to guarantee this (for Bibi) "said Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. I said.
"It is not permissible that in 2018, someone could risk losing their lives for a blasphemy hypothesis," said Salvini, interior minister and chief of state. of the League party, which had criticized Islam in the past.
Italy is quietly working on the case with other Western countries, he told an Italian radio station.
Previously, the International Catholic Church Aid in Distress (ACN) agency had quoted Masih in a phone call: "I appeal to the Italian government for it to help me, as well as my family, to leave Pakistan. "
"We are extremely worried because our lives are in danger, we do not even have enough to eat because we can not go out to buy food," he told the agency.
In conversation with the radio station, Salvini was invited to answer the husband 's call.
The case of Bibi has prompted groups such as ACN, which has close ties with the Vatican, to demand the protection of Christians in countries where they are in the minority.
Bibi was found guilty of blasphemy in 2010 after neighbors had said she had made disparaging remarks about Islam when they objected that she was drinking from him. 39 water in their glbad because she was not muslim. She is Protestant and denies blasphemy.
The ultra-right party Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) has blocked a significant
roads in Pakistan's largest cities for three days, calling for
the murder of Supreme Court justices who acquitted Bibi
and call on Prime Minister Imran Khan and the head of the army, enemies of Islam.
The TLP canceled the protests after reaching an agreement with the government that could prevent Bibi from leaving the country and open a review of the verdict.
Bibi's lawyer, Saiful Mulook, has fled to the Netherlands, fearing for the safety of his family.
Two Pakistani politicians who spoke in his defense were murdered in 2011.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International say that the blasphemy law is being increasingly exploited by religious extremists and ordinary Pakistanis to settle accounts.
Salvini said that Italy had nothing against the Pakistani government. "The enemy is violence, extremism and fanaticism," he said.
Masih and one of the couple's two daughters met Pope Francis at the Vatican in February and participated in a protest organized by ACN during which the Colosseum of Rome was lit in red to attract attention on the fate of the woman.
The group plans to dye red parts of the Grand Cbad in Venice during another event this month.
Masih has previously appealed to the United States, Britain and Canada for help in leaving the country.
(Additional report by Saad Sayeed in Islamabad and Giselda Vagnoni in Rome, edited by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
[ad_2]
Source link
