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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The Pakistani lawyer, who helped a Christian woman cancel her death sentence for blasphemy, said Saturday that she had left the country, fearing for her life after being acquitted earlier this week by Islamist demonstrations. .
PHOTO FILE: Saiful Mulook (left), lawyer of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy against Islam, leaves the court after the cancellation of her conviction, in Islamabad, Pakistan, October 31, 2018. REUTERS / Faisal Mahmood / File Photo
Leaders of the ultra-Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) blocked for three days the main roads of major cities in Pakistan, demanding the assassination of Supreme Court justices who acquitted Asia Bibi on Wednesday, urging their cooks and their servants to kill them. .
Saiful Mulook had been low-profile in the years when he represented Bibi, a mother of five who has been sentenced to death since 2010 because of the extremely sensitive nature of the case. Two politicians who had tried to help him were murdered.
Mulook told Reuters, in a WhatsApp message, that he had gone abroad "just to save the life of an angry mob" and feared for the safety of his family.
"I have consulted and everyone is of this opinion (that I should leave)," he said, adding that he would return to the country to continue his work in the case. he was protected by the security forces.
The TLP canceled the protests Friday after reaching an agreement with the government that the authorities would seek to register Bibi on an "exit checklist" barring him from leaving the country.
We do not know where Bibi is, but the Islamists have warned the authorities against leaving the country.
"There will be a war if they send Asia out of the country," said TLP leader Khadim Hussein Rizvi after the agreement was reached.
Earlier in the week, one of Rizvi's deputies called for the murder of Pakistan's president, Saqib Nisar, and two other judges who ruled in this case.
"Everyone who has access to them, kill them before the evening," said TLP co-founder Muhammad Afzal Qadri.
The TLP was founded by a movement supporting a bodyguard who murdered the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, after defending Bibi in 2011. Federal minority minister Shahbaz Bhatti was also killed after demanding his release.
Bibi was found guilty of blasphemy in 2010 for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbors objected to her drinking water as she was not drinking. was not Muslim. She has always denied blasphemy.
The affair scandalized Christians around the world and was a source of division in Pakistan, where Islamist parties such as the TLP accused Bibi of liberating the Pakistan government's response to Western demands.
The acquittal of Bibi is under review, although it is extremely rare for a review to overturn a Supreme Court decision.
Written by Drazen Jorgic; Edited by Helen Popper
