PAKISTAN Lahore, Christian sentenced to death on false blasphemy charges

In 2017, Ashfaq Masih was sued by a client for defaming the Prophet Muhammad. The accused is the manager of a bicycle and motorcycle repair business. The relatives say that the accusations are false and that they aim to evade payment for the work carried out. In many cases, lower courts impose the death penalty under pressure from extremist groups.

Lahore () – A court in Lahore has sentenced Christian Ashfaq Masih to death by hanging, accused of blasphemy. The sentence dates from July 4 and is related to an incident that occurred just over five years ago, when, according to the indictment, Masih defamed the Prophet Mohammed by claiming that Jesus Christ is the only prophet.

On June 15, 2017, the police opened a file against Ashfaq Masih, who was arrested after an argument with a Muslim man who had approached his bicycle repair shop. The Christian’s family denounced that the accusation of blasphemy was nothing more than a pretext used by the client, Muhammad Irfan, not to pay for the work done. Before the magistrates, Masih declared his innocence, and accused the plaintiff of trying to “destroy his shop”.

Since 2017, Masih’s wife and eight-year-old daughter had been waiting for Deputy Judge Khalid Wazir’s sentence, but it ended up plunging them into grief and despair. Despite the man’s contention that he is innocent, the jury passed the death sentence. It is feared that the man will be executed or, as has happened in the past, end up being the victim of an extrajudicial execution – even in prison – carried out in the name of the blasphemy law.

interviewed the president of Voice for Justice, Joseph Jansen, who stresses that Masih’s death sentence is a source of “fear” for the entire Pakistani Christian community, especially for “victims of other blasphemy cases and their families.” Most of the accusations, he continues, are “false or related to revenge and personal disputes, rather than actual episodes of defamation” of the prophet or the Islamic religion. In addition, in some cases, the accusations trigger violent reactions from angry mobs, who seek to “take justice into their own hands” and attack the accused and the areas where they live, causing very serious damage. In the face of all this, those who denounce -using the pretext of blasphemy and false accusations, manipulating or distorting the facts- “remain largely unpunished.”

A view shared by Christian activist Ashiknaz Khokhar, according to whom it is now common practice for lower courts to hand down (death) sentences to defendants who appear for blasphemy cases, even “in the absence of evidence or if it is clear that they are innocent “. “This is related to the lack of security in the courts and the pressure exerted by extremist groups. [islámicos] about the magistrates during the hearings”, he continues. It is well known that “most cases of blasphemy are registered with false accusations to resolve personal disputes,” the expert concludes. “The government must take strong measures to stop the misuse of the regulations and protect citizens.”