For Christian on death row, a final appeal in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — A defense lawyer says Pakistan’s top court will hear the final appeal of a Christian woman who has been on death row since 2010 after being convicted of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Asia Bibi’s lawyer Saiful Malook said Saturday the Supreme Court will take up her appeal Monday.

Bibi’s first appeal was dismissed by a Lahore High Court in 2014, but the Supreme Court stayed her execution in 2015.

Her case is being watched internationally and nationally as a test of Pakistan’s tolerance for its minorities.

Bibi was arrested in 2009 after a quarrel with Muslim women and since then she has languished in prison. Pakistani Islamists have demanded her execution and two politicians, a governor and a minister of minorities, were killed in 2011 for supporting her.