Family pray for Bibi as nation awaits blasphemy case verdict

SUPREME COURT IS YET TO REVEAL JUDGEMENT IN BLASPHEMY CASE

The family of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman and mother who faces becoming the first person to be executed for blasphemy in Pakistan, said they hoped the country’s Supreme Court would free her.

But in any case, they fear for their future living in Pakistan under the blasphemy laws, the family told journalists.

Bibi, who has been on death row since 2010, is at the centre of the high-profile case that has divided Pakistan and drawn in the Vatican. On Monday, the top Court heard her last appeal and said it had reached a judgement, which it has yet to reveal.

‘I will thank God’

“We are hopeful that whatever the court proceedings are, it will come out as positive for us,” her husband Ashiq Mesih told journalists. Her daughter Eisham Ashiq added: “I will be very happy the day my mother will be released. I will thank God that He got her released.”

Bibi’s family are in London on a visit organised by Aid to the Church in Need, a charity which helps repressed and persecuted Christians. Bibi, a labourer, was accused of blasphemy in 2009 by Muslim women she was working with.

The charge is punishable by death under legislation that rights groups say is routinely abused to settle personal vendettas. Her family said even if Bibi is released, it would be difficult to stay in their homeland. “When [the blasphemy law] is imposed on us our [Muslim] brothers should think that the Christians never say anything bad about the Quran.”