In blasphemy case, Islamic Pakistani preacher sentenced to death to go free

ISLAMABAD — A Pakistani court freed an Islamic preacher who was sentenced to death four years ago on charges of blasphemy, a defense lawyer said Tuesday.

Chaudhry Mehmood Akhtar said a judge in the city of Rawalpindi acquitted Mohammad Ishaq on Friday after finding him “completely innocent” of insulting Islam.

Ishaq was custodian at a shrine in Punjab province when he was arrested and sentenced to death in 2013 after a person accused him of claiming in conversation to actually be God.

“My client is a practicing Muslim and he was a victim of false charges. Now I am doing the paperwork to get him out of a jail,” Akhtar said.

Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, anyone accused of insulting God, Islam or religious personalities can be sentenced to death. However, the laws sometimes are used to settle personal scores. Human- rights groups have called for amending the laws, which are often misused against the country’s minority Christian community.