Pakistani high court acquires Asia Bibi and Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy: NPR

The Supreme Court of Pakistan announced Wednesday the acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Catholic woman who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010 for blasphemy in a case that split the South Asian country and provoked international outrage.

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar read the court's ruling in Islamabad, saying the prosecution "has categorically failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt," the BBC reported.

His initial conviction stemmed from an argument with his Muslim colleagues on a farm about whether Bibi, as a Christian, was pure enough to share his water. The incident led to allegations that she blasphemed against the Prophet Muhammad.

If her death sentence had been executed, Bibi would have been the first person executed by the state under the blasphemy laws.

The verdict of the Supreme Court was officially decided on October 8, but was not announced publicly until Wednesday.

Bibi, wife and mother of two children and three stepchildren, was under sentence of death and was held in solitary confinement for more than eight years. A previous appeal hearing was adjourned in 2016 for legal reasons.

Bibi's case has been extremely controversial in Pakistan. The hard religious right has repeatedly called for it to be hanged. After the announcement of Wednesday's verdict, the Pakistani Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labaik, or TLP, called for the death of the president of the court and two other judges who quashed the conviction. The party also called the representative of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The Associated Press reports:

On the eve of the verdict, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a hard-line religious who brought tens of thousands of people to the streets at previous gatherings, called on his followers to gather in all major cities to express their love for the Prophet and to protest, if Bibi is released, the authorities have strengthened security in the country's churches.

Shortly after the ruling, hundreds of Islamists blocked a key road linking the city of Rawalpindi to the capital Islamabad. Islamists from the largest city of Pakistan, Karachi, and Peshawar, in the north-west of the country, also gathered for the protests. Similar gatherings have taken place elsewhere. Police urged protesters to disperse peacefully. "

Upon her release, Bibi should leave the country, the PA announced.

His case has aroused the concern of the international community from the beginning.

In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI called for his release. Pope Francis met his family in 2015. The same year, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, declared Bibi honorary citizen of the French capital.

Pakistan's blasphemy and capital punishment laws for violating these laws have raised concern among international rights organizations, "in part because they are sometimes misused to settle quarrels, seize land or persecute religious minorities by making false allegations, "said Phillip Reeves of NPR.

The state has never executed anyone under the law, but militiamen have taken the trouble to punish the defendants. A young Pakistani Christian accused of blasphemy was murdered by a crowd in 2014.

The blasphemy laws were made stricter in the 1980s under the military government of Zia-ul Haq, which sought to strengthen its power by "Islamizing" Pakistan's laws.

The laws are strongly supported by the religious right of the country. A provincial governor who ruled in favor of Bibi and against the blasphemy laws was assassinated in 2011 by his bodyguard, who was later hailed as a martyr by hard-liners.

Most politicians and Pakistani officials prefer to avoid publicly discussing blasphemy laws because of the dangers involved, reports Reeves.