Pakistan Supreme Court overrules death sentence of Asia Bibi

Pakistan Supreme Court overrules death sentence of Asia Bibi

Pakistan Supreme Court has ruled out the execution of a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy in a controversial case in the country.

Asia Bibi was convicted in 2010 after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, in a row with her neighbors. But Bibi insists on her innocence but has spent most of her eight years in jail on Wednesday. The abolition of the ruling has already led to violent protests led by militants who strongly support blasphemy.

Anti-government demonstrations were held in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Multan. There were reports of clashes between protesters and police.

Police cordoned off the red zone in the capital, Islamabad, where the Supreme Court has issued the new ruling, and authorities have deployed security forces to keep the protesters away from the court.

Chief Justice Thakib Nisarim, who followed the verdict, said Asia Bibi could get out of Shaikupura prison, near Lahore, immediately, if not required in any other case. Asia was not in the courtroom to hear the verdict but did not believe it when she heard it in prison.

"I do not believe what I hear, will they let me go now, will they call me out, really?" - She said to a source.

What was Assia Bibi accused of?

The trial of Asia, whose full name is Asia Norin, began following a controversy with a group of women in June 2009. The women were eating some fruit when a water bucket erupted. The women said that they could not touch the bucket, because Asia used it to put a cup in it, because she was unclean because of her religion. Prosecutors claimed that after the controversy following the incident, women asked Bibi to convert to Islam and said she had made three offensive comments to the Prophet Muhammad in response to them.

Bibi was beaten in her home and her accusers said she had confessed to blasphemy. She was subsequently arrested after police investigated her.

What did the Supreme Court say?

The judges said that the prosecutors "could not definitively prove the case, beyond any doubt".

They added that the case was based on flimsy evidence and that the procedures followed were not sound. Pepe's confession was heard before a group of people who were "threatening to kill her".

The new provision, which overturned the previous ruling on more than one point, referred to the Quran and Islamic history. And ended with a quote from the Prophet's Hadith, calling for the treatment of non-Muslims very well.