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Pakistan Supreme Court Overturns Death Sentence of Christian Woman Convicted
of Blasphemy

by VOA News

   Pakistan's Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a Christian
   woman facing execution for blasphemy against Islam.

   The special three-member panel, headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nasir,
   ordered authorities to immediately release 53-year-old Asia Bibi in its
   ruling Wednesday.

   Bibi's ordeal began in 2009, when she was accused of committing
   blasphemy and using defamatory language about Islam's Prophet Muhammad
   when she got into an argument with some Muslim women while working in a
   field in Punjab province. She was tried and condemned by a trial court
   the next year.

   Blasphemy remains a highly sensitive topic in Pakistan, where strong
   religious sentiments have led to mob violence and killings in the past.
   Two prominent Pakistani politicians were gunned down after they
   demanded reform to the country's controversial blasphemy laws following
   Bibi's death sentence, including Salman Taseer, Punjab's governor, who
   was killed in 2011 by his bodyguard.

   The hardline Islamic political party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP)
   warned earlier this month of "terrible consequences against the
   government and the judiciary" if Bibi were to be acquitted.

   Last year, thousands of supporters and members of TLP staged a massive
   demonstration that paralyzed Islamabad for weeks. They accused the
   government of committing blasphemy over its attempt to modify a
   parliamentary bill related to a "Khatam-e-Nabbuwwat" oath that affirms
   the end of prophecy with the Prophet Muhammad.