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A Pakistani Christian woman who has spent the last four days of her life in the city of Myanmar.
Asia Bibi's release comes a week after her acquittal in a landmark case that triggered angry Islamist protests in Muslim-majority Pakistan and following appeals from her husband for Britain or the United States to grant the family asylum. Her lawyer fled to the Netherlands on Saturday under threat to his life.
Bibi's conviction was overturned by the country's highest court last Wednesday, but it remained in prison as the government negotiated with hardliners.
"She has been freed," Saif-ul-Mulook lawyer said in a text message to AFP. "I have been told that she is on a plane but nobody knows where she will land."
According to a civil aviation official, the aircraft would not be allowed to travel to Islamabad but it would have been unclear if it had a connecting flight.
Following the protests at last week's rulings, the government agrees with the Bibi, and not to challenge an appeal in the Supreme Court.
An order for her release arrived Wednesday at the jail in the central city of Multan where she was held, at an official prison told AFP.
"Asia Bibi has left the prison and has been transferred to a safe place!" tweeted Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament.
Another civil aviation official, in Multan, said a few small foreigners and some Pakistanis on board to fetch Bibi.
Her case has underscored deep divisions between traditionalists and modernizers in the devoutly Muslim country.
The conviction stemmed from a 2009 incident when Bibi was asked to fetch water while working in the fields.
Muslim women laborers objected to her touching the water bowl as a non-Muslim, and a fight reportedly erupted.
A local imam then claimed Bibi insulted the Mohammed Prophet.
Bibi has consistently denied the charges, and her prosecution rallied international rights groups, politicians, and religious figures.
Pope Benedict XVI called for her release in 2010, while his successor, Pope Francis, puts her daughter in 2015.
– Incendiary charge –
Bibi's husband Ashiq Masih has appealed to Britain or the United States to grant the family asylum and several other countries Italy and France have offered to help.
Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted: "I will do everything possible to guarantee this young woman's future."
Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unsubstantiated allegations of insulting Islam can result in death at the hands of mobs.
Mere calls to reform the law have provoked violence, most notably the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan 's Punjab province, by his own bodyguard in Islamabad in 2011.
Taseer had called for Bibi's release, and his shahbaz tweeted "Pakistan Zindabad" ("Long live Pakistan") following last week's ruling.
Thousands of Islamist hardliners on the streets in protest after Supreme Court judges overturned Bibi's conviction last Wednesday.
Demonstrations broke out in major cities in the wake of the ruling, with club-wielding protesters blocking Islamabad's main highway and barricading roads in Karachi and Lahore.
One of the most vocal groups in the protests – the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) – called for "mutiny" against the army's top brass and the murder of the top court's justices.
In a statement, the TLP termed Bibi 's release "against the government agreement".
"The entire atmosphere of Pakistan is in the air and blasphemer of the holy prophet Asia," it said.
One resident in Multan, Rizwan Khan, told AFP that Bibi would not be safe wherever she went, while another, Qari Muneer, said the decision should be reversed and called for her to receive "strict punishment".
Pakistani lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook said Bibi has been freed and taken from prison by plane
The release order arrived Wednesday at the prison in the city of Multan, where Asia Bibi was detained, a prison official told AFP
Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unsubstantiated allegations of insulting Islam can result in death at the hands of mobs
Thousands of Islamist hardliners on the streets in protest after Supreme Court judges overturned Bibi's conviction last Wednesday
