A Christian mom of 4 was sentenced to loss of life on Wednesday after a choose convicted her underneath Pakistan's blasphemy legal guidelines, her lawyer stated.
Shagufta Kiran, 40, was convicted underneath Part 295-C of Pakistan's extensively condemned blasphemy regulation for insulting Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, which carries a compulsory loss of life sentence. Lawyer Rana Abdul Hameed stated Further Classes Decide Islamabad Muhammad Afzal Majoka additionally fined Kiran 300,000 rupees ($1,077) after her three-year trial.
She was arrested by the Federal Investigation Company (FIA) on 29 July 2021 in Islamabad for allegedly sharing blasphemous content material in a WhatsApp group in September 2020. Her husband and two sons had been additionally taken into custody through the raid however had been later launched.
“The criticism in opposition to Kiran was registered by a Muslim lady named Shiraz Ahmed Farooqi, who claimed that she had shared content material disrespectful to the Prophet of Islam,” Hameed advised Christian Every day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “Nonetheless, Kiran claims that she just isn’t the creator of the content material and forwarded it to the WhatsApp group with out studying it.”
Kiran, previously a nurse, joined a number of interfaith WhatsApp teams the place she preached the gospel and defended her Christian religion. One such group, Pure Dialogue, was administered by the complainant Farooqi, Muhammad Ameer Faisal from India and Muhammad Jaleel from Canada.
Hameed stated Kiran was a courageous lady who remained steadfast all through the trial.
“I met together with her after the choose handed down the sentence and I can affirm that she could be very hopeful of a constructive end result from the superior courts,” he stated. “Nonetheless, she misses her household very a lot and needs to be reunited with them as quickly as potential.”
The lawyer stated he would file an attraction after the courtroom points an in depth order. He stated the decision was not a shock as 99 % of these accused underneath Part 295-C are convicted by Islamist-pressured courts.
“In case you study all of the 295-C circumstances, the courts are inclined to convict the accused even when the circumstances in opposition to them are very weak,” Hameed stated. “This is because of strain from non secular teams and fears of mob violence. In case you analyze all of the 295-C circumstances, you will notice that every one the convictions of the courtroom have been overturned by the superior courts.”
Since 1987, practically 3,000 folks have been charged with blasphemy, in accordance with the Heart for Social Justice (CSJ). The precise scale of abuse of those legal guidelines could also be three to 4 instances increased, the report stated.
It stated a whole lot of accused had been jailed in Pakistan final yr, with 552 held in jails in Punjab province alone. In response to the report, a minimum of 350 folks remained behind bars as of June, with 103 new folks accused of blasphemy between January and June this yr.
The report stated a minimum of seven folks accused of blasphemy have been killed by people or mobs throughout Pakistan since January. A complete of 94 folks accused of blasphemy had been killed in mob assaults between 1994 and 2023.
As within the earlier yr, Pakistan was ranked seventh on the checklist of essentially the most tough locations for Christianity within the Open Doorways 2024 World Watch Checklist.
© Christian Every day Worldwide – Morning Star Information
