Minister calls for reinvestigation of Christian woman’s case

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* Shahbaz says Aasia Bibi must be provided security in jail

LAHORE: Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti on Thursday called for a thorough re-investigation and fair appeal for a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy after the pope called for her release.

On November 8, Aasia Bibi was sentenced to hang after being accused of blasphemy in 2009. She has filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court (LHC).

“We have requested the Punjab government that the trial should be fair in the LHC. She must also be provided security in jail,” Bhatti said. Aasia’s supporters say the case is baseless and that her first trial “was not heard properly,” Bhatti said.

“We have, therefore, asked the Punjab government that the case be reinvestigated properly,” he said, defending the Christian woman.

Pope Benedict XVI this week called for her release and said Christians in Pakistan were “often victims of violence and discrimination.” He said, “I feel close to Aasia Bibi and her family and I ask that she be released as soon as possible.”

Pakistan has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but the case spotlights a law which rights activists say encourages extremism in a country on the front line of the US-led war on terror.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he was told during a visit to Islamabad last week that Pakistan was committed to changing the blasphemy law and has promised to join the fight to save the convicted woman. Aasia’s lawyer said the appeal had been filed. Neither he nor her husband, Ashiq Masih, said there had been any contact from the government.

“The LHC will take up the case. It can order a fresh inquiry, a fresh trial or a fresh investigation,” lawyer SK Chaudhry said.

“We will move a bail application for Aasia next week and we hope the court will grant her bail,” Chaudhry said.

In June 2009, Aasia was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. But Muslim women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim, she should not touch the water bowl.

A few days later the women went to a local cleric and alleged that Aasia made derogatory remarks about revered Muslim personalities.

She was arrested in Ittanwalai village and prosecuted under Section 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries the death penalty. Rights activists and minority pressure groups said it was the first time that a woman had been sentenced to hang in Pakistan for blasphemy, although a Muslim couple were jailed for life last year.

Only around three percent of Pakistan’s population of 167 million is estimated to be non-Muslims.