Pakistani Christian woman freed after blasphemy death sentence reversed

By Asif Shahzad and Mubasher Bukhari

 

FILE PHOTO: The daughters of Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi pose with an image of their mother while standing outside their residence in Sheikhupura located in Pakistan's Punjab Province November 13, 2010. Standing left to right is Esha, 12, Sidra, 18 and Eshum, 10. REUTERS/Adrees Latif/File Photo

 

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani Christian woman has been freed from prison a week after the Supreme Court overturned her conviction and death sentence for blasphemy against Islam, and she is now at a secure location for fear of attacks on her, officials said on Thursday.

 

The release of Asia Bibi, a mother of five, prompted immediate anger from a hard-line Islamist party that has threatened to paralyse daily life countrywide with street protests if her acquittal is not reversed.

 

Bibi, 53, was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 over allegations she made derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbours objected to her drinking water from their glass because she was not Muslim. She always denied having committed blasphemy.

 

The case has outraged Christians worldwide, and Pope Francis met with Bibi's family earlier this year, saying he prayed for her. Italy said on Tuesday it will try to help Bibi, who is Catholic, to leave Pakistan.

 

Insulting Islam's Prophet Mohammad carries a mandatory death penalty in Pakistan, which is about 95 percent Muslim and has among the harshest blasphemy laws in the world. Minority Christians make up about 2 percent of the population.

 

Three security officials told Reuters early on Thursday that Bibi had been released from a prison in Multan, a city in southern Punjab province.

 

She was flown to the airport near the capital, Islamabad, but was in protective custody because of threats to her life, said the three officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

 

Bibi's lawyer, who has fled Pakistan and this week sought asylum in the Netherlands, confirmed she was no longer in prison.

 

"All I can tell you is that she has been released," lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook told Reuters by phone from the Netherlands.

 

A spokesman for the hard-line Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party, which took to the streets after the Supreme Court ruling, said her release violated a deal with the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to end the protests.

 

"The TLP activists are agitated as the government has breached the agreement with our party. The rulers have showed their dishonesty," party spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi told Reuters.

 

The government deal last week promised not to block a petition for the Supreme Court to review Bibi's acquittal in light of Islamic sharia law, the TLP said. It also said the government promised to work to ensure Bibi could not leave the country.

 

If Pakistan's government allows Bibi to leave, it could face more paralysing protests from the TLP and other Islamist parties.

 

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; writing by Kay Johnson; editing by Hugh Lawson and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-11-08

27 minutes ago, webfact said:

The release of Asia Bibi, a mother of five, prompted immediate anger from a hard-line Islamist party that has threatened to paralyse daily life countrywide with street protests if her acquittal is not reversed.

unbelievable, primitive retards.

28 minutes ago, webfact said:

Insulting Islam's Prophet Mohammad carries a mandatory death penalty in Pakistan,

sounds familiar

Even the UK still has blasphemy laws on the books. Stephen Fry fell fowl of them a while back.

 

I think there is a whole lot of politics behind the scenes in this one.

 

Hope she get out of the place alive.

Europe is going towards strengthening blasphemy laws. 

 

Not against Christianity or Jesus, of course, but against Islam and Mohammed.

 

Just last month the European Court of Human Rights ruled that defaming the Prophet Mohammed “goes beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate" and "could stir up prejudice" and thus exceeds permissible limits of freedom of expression.

 

This is not some abstract ruling. This was cited during the upholding of the conviction of an Austrian woman for speaking ill of Mohammed.

 

The European Court of Human Rights rules against free speech. An organisation to be avoided at all costs.

 

Unbelievable, progressive, retards.

16 minutes ago, RickBradford said:

Europe is going towards strengthening blasphemy laws. 

 

Not against Christianity or Jesus, of course, but against Islam and Mohammed.

 

Just last month the European Court of Human Rights ruled that defaming the Prophet Mohammed “goes beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate" and "could stir up prejudice" and thus exceeds permissible limits of freedom of expression.

 

This is not some abstract ruling. This was cited during the upholding of the conviction of an Austrian woman for speaking ill of Mohammed.

 

The European Court of Human Rights rules against free speech. An organisation to be avoided at all costs.

 

Unbelievable, progressive, retards.

Give it a few years and it will be re-named Europistan......

I hope she is offered asylum.

I hope the UK immediately ceases to give any more financial

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Sorry..
Financial aid to pakistan..oh wait..too many pakistanis are living in the UK and can vote

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4 minutes ago, malagateddy said:

too many pakistanis are living in the UK

Do you have an actual count, so we can know how many are too many?

Easy answer..find out how many kids are named mohammed and multiply

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Sorry..

Multiply by 6..that should do it

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4 hours ago, webfact said:

"The TLP activists are agitated as the government has breached the agreement with our party. The rulers have showed their dishonesty," party spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi told Reuters.

And what have you shown? Barbarism, Bigotry, Ignorance, Stupidity, Cowardice.

Why don't you go and akbar yourself...

They are all brainwashed from an early age to believe in an ideology and a pheodophile

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47 minutes ago, oobar said:

Do you have an actual count, so we can know how many are too many?

Go to Birmingham ,luton , london , etc etc etc and count them for yourself

ps allow a couple of weeks .

Go to Birmingham ,luton , london , etc etc etc and count them for yourself
ps allow a couple of weeks .

More like coupla years

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53 minutes ago, malagateddy said:

Easy answer..find out how many kids are named mohammed and multiply

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I asked a Southern (UK) friend of mine about the demographic and the answer they gave me is that there are a high percentage in the places that were always "s***holes" (and remain so) and not very many at all in the places that were previously (and remain) "nice".

 

He was very emphatic that those places were "s***holes" in the first place.

 

He said he couldn't understand what the fuss was all about as the only ones he ever sees are the Bangladeshis at his local "Indian" and that they keep to themselves, work very hard and are very polite.

 

I have to confess that when I return to my part of the "old country" I hardly see any at all. 

 

I don't really know where the "s***holes" always were (and remain) because where I was born and brought up was (and remains) very nice......I suppose it must be one of those "regional" things.

 

 

 

Christians the world over have a duty to help this lady. I just hope she gets out of her awful country before the mob catch up with her.

The UK etc should immediately stop foreign aid to pakistan..that would give the current pakistan govt food for thought.


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3 hours ago, AhFarangJa said:

Give it a few years and it will be re-named Europistan......

More likely Eurabia. Worth an online search.

Too many racist Brits like you, living in Thailand. 

53 minutes ago, gamini said:

Too many racist Brits like you, living in Thailand. 

The thousands wanting to kill her are the racists , mind you many on here with their heads buried in the sand .

Religions are fiction, not fact, and no civilised society should be forced to pretend otherwise. For this reason alone, blasphemy laws should not be reinforced - as is happening now - but scrapped entirely.

 

To continue appeasing fundamentalist demands to respect their mythical god and his prophet (or else!) is tantamount to an act of slow cultural suicide for some of the world's most advanced secular societies.

 

The latest immigration demographics underline the need for action to prevent what is left of our traditional values, rights and freedoms from being totally trashed. 

http://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/

 

Two new initiatives are urgently required.

 

The first should be immediately and drastically to reduce immigration from countries with cultures clearly inimical to our own. The second is to accept that multiculturalism has failed (as David Cameron at least had he guts to do before stepping down) and that the new political priority must be the integration/ assimilation of those migrants already in our midst.

 

Oh, and anyone who wipes their feet on our welcome mat should be shown the door. 

Edited November 8, 20187 yr by Krataiboy

22 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Religions are fiction, not fact, and no civilised society should be forced to pretend otherwise. For this reason alone, blasphemy laws should not be reinforced - as is happening now - but scrapped entirely.

 

To continue appeasing fundamentalist demands to respect their mythical god and his prophet (or else!) is tantamount to an act of slow cultural suicide for some of the world's most advanced secular societies.

 

The latest immigration demographics underline the need for action to prevent what is left of our traditional values, rights and freedoms from being totally trashed. 

http://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/

 

Two new initiatives are urgently required.

 

The first should be immediately and drastically to reduce immigration from countries with cultures clearly inimical to our own. The second is to accept that multiculturalism has failed (as David Cameron at least had he guts to do before stepping down) and that the new political priority must be the integration/ assimilation of those migrants already in our midst.

 

Oh, and anyone who wipes their feet on our welcome mat should be shown the door. 

Hey, I was taught to always wipe my feet on the welcome mat before entering the house. Failure to do so ended with me being tasked with cleaning the bloody carpets. 

56 minutes ago, gamini said:

Too many racist Brits like you, living in Thailand. 

Islam is not a race. It is an ideology - and in my view a toxic and totalitarian one - which constitutes a very real threat to my homeland (for completely rational reasons, in my view, which I have attempted to explain in numerous posts.

 

Sticking the racist label on me will not shut me up. Or, hopefully, anyone else whose views you happen not to like. And don't bother riposting with that other lift-down-and-dust "Islamophobe" label.

 

PS: Rather than bore everybody else to death, I am perfectly prepared, should you be interested, to debate the merits or otherwise of my position and yours using the ThaiVisa messaging service. Your call.

16 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Islam is not a race. It is an ideology - and in my view a toxic and totalitarian one - which constitutes a very real threat to my homeland (for completely rational reasons, in my view, which I have attempted to explain in numerous posts.

 

Sticking the racist label on me will not shut me up. Or, hopefully, anyone else whose views you happen not to like. And don't bother riposting with that other lift-down-and-dust "Islamophobe" label.

 

PS: Rather than bore everybody else to death, I am perfectly prepared, should you be interested, to debate the merits or otherwise of my position and yours using the ThaiVisa messaging service. Your call.

+1 Well said.

8 hours ago, owl sees all said:

Even the UK still has blasphemy laws on the books. Stephen Fry fell fowl of them a while back.

 

I think there is a whole lot of politics behind the scenes in this one.

 

Hope she get out of the place alive.

fowl? "Foul" perhaps you old Chook?   (Owl  -  Chook  555???)

Edited November 8, 20187 yr by The Deerhunter

14 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Hey, I was taught to always wipe my feet on the welcome mat before entering the house. Failure to do so ended with me being tasked with cleaning the bloody carpets. 

The carpets keep getting bloodier (Manchester Arena, Finsbury Park, Westminster Bridge, etc) and will continue to do so with the egregious Government cuts to police funding.

She wants to flee the country, her lawyer has already fled. Many Christians want to flee Pakistan, but this is not the answer, it will never solve the fundamental problems that blight their society. Their thoughts and values will never be compatible with modern life whilst they keep one foot in the 6th century. 

If I wasn't an Atheist I would say "Thank heavens for that."    Maybe the new Prime minister to thank for it.    Executing anyone for a victim-less crime is just not cricket.