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The lawyer of a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy after eight years on death row in Pakistan fled the country, fearing for her safety, said her brother on Saturday.
James Masih said that Asia Bibi's lawyer, Saiful Malook, had left Pakistan without giving further details. Mr. Malook's phone was off.
Pakistan's highest court on Wednesday acquitted Ms Bibi and ordered her release, which angered the country's Islamists, who organized protests nationwide to demand its execution.
Overnight, the government reached an agreement with the Islamists, in which it agreed to impose a travel ban on Ms. Bibi while the case was being investigated. In return, the Islamists put an end to their demonstrations, which blocked the roads and immobilized certain regions of the country.
Mr Malook told the Associated Press earlier this week that he should leave Pakistan as hard clerical members Khadim Hussain Rizvi had threatened to kill him as well as the judges who acquitted Ms Bibi.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera announced that Mr. Malook had crossed Rome to Amsterdam. He said that he would speak at a conference in Amsterdam next week before settling permanently in London.
Blasphemy against Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan, and the mere rumor has provoked lynchings in the past.
Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, was shot and killed by one of his guards in 2011 for defending Ms. Bibi and criticizing the misuse of the law. The assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged for the crime but was later hailed by the clerics as a martyr, millions of people going to a shrine he erected near Islamabad. Mr. Malook was a prosecutor at the trial of Mr. Qadri.
Ms. Bibi was arrested in 2009 for insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an altercation with other farm workers. His family and lawyers deny ever insulting Islam.
Rights groups called for Ms. Bibi's release and criticized the blasphemy law, claiming it had been used to settle accounts or abuse religious minorities. The court upheld the blasphemy law, but said there was not enough evidence to convict Ms. Bibi.
It is not known that the Supreme Court of Pakistan overrules its decisions, but judicial reviews generally take years. Ms. Bibi's trial should continue until the examination is completed.
Ms. Bibi's family expected her release Thursday night. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, came back from England with her children in mid-October and was waiting for her release to leave Pakistan. Although the family did not reveal its destination, France and Spain offered asylum.
