ICC Note: Pakistan’s Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has indicated that the final appeal for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, will be scheduled this summer. In 2010, Bibi was convicted of committing blasphemy against Islam and sentenced to death under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws. Since then, Bibi’s case has made international headlines when several prominent Pakistani leaders were assassinated for advocating on her behalf.  

04/25/2018 Pakistan (ACLJ) – Finally after things have looked so bleak for Asia Bibi, the Christian mother of five sentenced to death by hanging in Pakistan on absurd blasphemy charges, there has been a sign of hope.

Asia Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 for offering a Muslim coworker a glass of water, and has since languished on death row, separated from her heartbroken family, and waiting for news of her appeal.

According to new reports, the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Mian Saqib Nisar has now promised that the Court will take up Bibi’s appeal. The Chief Justice assured Bibi’s attorney that he will be presiding over the appeal in her case personally.

“Your appeal in Aasia Bibi [case] is going to be fixed soon as I myself will preside [over] the bench,” Chief Justice told Saiful Malook, the counsel for 51-year-old Bibi, on Saturday.

According to her attorney, the appeal is likely to be reviewed and a decision made possibly as soon as this summer.

Malook expressed the hope that the case might be listed for hearing in the next couple of weeks as the CJP [Chief Justice of Pakistan] had also assured him that all criminal appeals would be decided by July.

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