PROFESSOR TO DIE FOR BLASPHEMY AGAINST PROPHET MOHAMMED
A Pakistani court on Saturday sentenced a university professor to death for blasphemy under a law that critics say is often used to target minorities and liberal activists.
AFP reports that Junaid Hafeez, 33, was arrested in March 2013 for allegedly posting derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed on social media.
Blasphemy
is a hugely sensitive issue in conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan, where
laws against it carry a potential death sentence. Even unproven allegations
have led to mob lynching and vigilante murders.
Hafeez’s
sentence was announced in central city of Multan, where he was a university
professor at the time of his arrest, and his counsel Asad Jamal slammed the
decision as “most unfortunate”.
“We
will appeal against this verdict,” Jamal tolP.
“Junaid
Hafeez’s death sentence is a gross miscarriage of justice and the verdict… is
extremely disappointing and surprising,” Amnesty International’s Rabia Mehmood
said.
“The
government must immediately release him and drop all charges against him,” she
added. “The authorities must also guarantee his safety and that of his family
and legal representatives.”
Hafeez’s
lawyer was killed in 2014 after receiving death threats during a hearing.
About
40 people convicted of blasphemy are on death row in Pakistan, according to a
2018 estimate by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The
acquittal last October of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who had spent more than
eight years on death row for blasphemy, provoked violent protests across
Pakistan, leaving large swathes of the country paralysed.
Bibi
now lives in Canada with her family.
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