Last appeal heard in Asia Bibi case
Chief Justice Nisar did not say when the bench would reveal the fate of the mother of five
Pakistan’s Supreme Court said it had reached a judgement yesterday after hearing the final appeal of a Christian mother on death row for blasphemy, but that it will announce its ruling later in the notorious case, which has gone all the way to the Vatican.
Chief Justice Saqib Nisar did not say when the three-member bench would reveal the fate of Asia Bibi — a mother of five who has been on death row since 2010 and could become the first person in Pakistan to be executed under the controversial blasphemy laws.
He said the delay was “for reasons to be recorded later”, and told media they could not publish comments on the inflammatory case.
Bibi’s is the most high-profile blasphemy case in deeply conservative Muslim Pakistan, where the accusation is so explosive that anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.
Her plight has drawn attention from international rights groups. Pope Benedict XVI joined in calls for her release in 2010, while in 2015 her daughter met with Pope Francis, who as the head of the Catholic Church offered prayers for her mother.
If the court upholds Bibi’s sentence, her only recourse will be a direct appeal to the president for clemency.