Lawyer of Pakistani Flees to Netherlands
The Pakistani lawyer who helped free a Christian woman who had been sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy has fled to the Netherlands.
A Dutch Christian rights group, Association for Persecuted Christians, revealed this on Monday.
It stated that Asia Bibi’s lawyer, Saiful Malook, left Pakistan on Saturday, due to fear that he could be attacked after Bibi’s conviction was overturned on Wednesday.
Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam, and had been sentenced to death.
However, Malook helped overturn the decision, and has been threatened by angry mobs calling for the judges in the case to be killed.
Two Pakistani politicians who tried to help Bibi have been assassinated.
Several parties in Dutch parliament have said they support providing temporary shelter to Bibi if she flees there.
Islamists shut down major cities in Pakistan through days of demonstrations against Bibi. They said they would escalate their protests if she were permitted to leave the country.
The government has indicated it will bar her from traveling abroad.
Asia’s husband, Ashiq Masih; and daughter, Eisham Ashiq. Photo: Independent Catholic News
The discharge of the Christian woman had reportedly been postponed after the government failed to come to terms with Islamists that have held protests all over the country.
Some 5,000 protesters have rallied against releasing Asia Bibi, demanding that the acquittal verdict be overturned and the woman be publicly hanged, according to AFP.
In 2010, Asia Bibi was convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammad during a quarrel with two farm workers.
Blasphemy is a very sensitive issue in Pakistan, punishable by death.
The country’s telecommunications companies have blocked hundreds of websites deemed to be blasphemous, in particular those containing pornography.
According to a US Commission on International Religious Freedom study, Pakistan’s blasphemy law is used at a level unequaled to any other country, with 14 individuals on death row and 19 serving life sentences.
Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court has ruled that the death penalty should be the only penalty for blasphemy, the USCIRF said.