ICC Note:

As Pakistan’s Supreme Court prepares to hear the final appeal of Asia Bibi, a Christian women sentenced to death under the country’s notorious blasphemy laws, some anticipate the court could set an important precedent. According to one human rights lawyer, the case is so flawed, the appeal should only take 30 minutes before Bibi is acquitted. If acquitted on the merits, the Supreme Court could render a decision that sets a precedent that would finally curb Pakistan’s dangerous blasphemy laws. Inevitably, this would incur the ire of Pakistan’s radicals, but it would set the country on a better human rights course in the future. 

10/12/2016 Pakistan (The Guardian) – The most notorious cases involving Pakistan’s blasphemy laws will be heard by the country’s Supreme Court on Thursday in a legal showdown that lawyers hope will spare the life of a poor Christian woman and curb future convictions.

Asia Bibi was sentenced to death in 2010 for allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammad following a bad-tempered argument with Muslim women in Itanwali, the small village in Punjab where she used to live.

She became a touchstone for liberals and Islamists alike after her case was linked to the assassination in January 2011 of Salmaan Taseer, then governor of Punjab.

He was shot in the back by Mumtaz Qadri, one of his own police bodyguards, who had been outraged by Taseer’s public support for Bibi. Taseer had lobbied for a presidential pardon for her and publicly denounced the blasphemy legislation as a “black law”.

He echoed criticism of human rights groups which say laws intended to protect Islam have been widely abused, with false or flimsy allegations often levelled against religious minorities as an excuse to settle property disputes.

While liberal activists have called for Bibi’s release, Islamist hardliners have demanded her execution, not least during vast demonstrations that erupted in Rawalpindi in March after Qadri was hanged for Taseer’s murder.

Bibi’s husband, Ashiq Masih, told the Guardian the family has been in hiding ever since Qadri’s execution.

“If Asia is acquitted we will never be able to return to our previous life, as my wife has been labelled an infidel and an infidel doesn’t deserve to survive in a society full of hatred,” he said. “Too many want her dead and have put a bounty on her head.”

Asad Jamal, a leading human rights lawyer, said the court had no option but to acquit Bibi. Both her original trial and her first appeal in the Lahore high court in 2014, which upheld her conviction, were hopelessly flawed, he said.

“There is absolutely no case against Asia, I really can’t emphasize that enough,” he said. “It should take no more than 30 minutes to throw the case out.”

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