PAKISTAN Christian tortured in prison to ‘confess’ his blasphemy

Imran Rehman has been in prison for two months for a complaint against him in relation to a post published on WhatsApp. “Since her arrest, my daughter has not been able to go to school,” says the wife. In Pakistan, social media is increasingly being used to fabricate false accusations of blasphemy against families belonging to religious minorities

Lahore () – Imran Rehman, a 32-year-old Christian, father of two girls, was tortured in Lahore prison, where he has been detained for two months. He is accused of having posted blasphemous material in a WhatsApp group. The complaint about the torture comes from Imran’s mother, Nargis Bibi, who visited him in recent days. The woman was informed by her son that he was subjected to all kinds of violence to obtain a confession. In addition, he is subjected to strong mental pressure by being locked up in a wing where four out of six prisoners suffer from mental retardation.

A complaint was filed against Imran on 14 September and he was immediately detained by the cybercrime department of the Federal Investigation Agency. Imran’s wife, Komal Mushtaq, stated that Imran is innocent and that he is being falsely accused of blasphemy. “Since her detention, my four-year-old daughter has not been able to go to school,” she says, “and feeding my two-year-old daughter has become difficult because he was the only one who brought home the bread.”

Lawyer Abdul Hameed Rana argues that the case against Rehman is a flagrant violation of the rules, since a complaint against a person cannot be filed without due notification and guarantees and without involving the accused in the investigation, so that he can defend himself.

Furthermore, in Pakistan, as human rights activist Ashiknaz Khokhar points out, digital media and social media have increasingly become a source of false blasphemy accusations against religious minorities. The blasphemy laws and the Electronic Crime Prevention Act of 2016 are being misused to restrict freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion, as demonstrated – in addition to that of Imran Rehman – the cases of Shagufta Kiran and Zafar Bhatti, . The latter, for example, is the person convicted of blasphemy who spent the longest time in pretrial detention: he was arrested in July 2012 and in January 2022 he was sentenced to death. The charges -based on unproven elements- completely ruined the lives of the relatives of the accused.

Joseph Jansen, President of Voice for Justice, comments that current blasphemy laws do not guarantee a fair trial or religious freedom: the accuser enjoys impunity even when presenting false evidence and testimony. Blasphemy laws are incompatible with international human rights standards. Added to this are acts of collective violence – under the pretext of accusations of blasphemy – alleging the weakness of the judicial system.