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Asif Pervaiz has been in detention since 2013, accused by his supervisor at work of sending a derogatory text message about the Prophet Muhammad of Islam.
He was sentenced Tuesday by a court in Lahore, Pakistan, for blasphemy. First to three years in prison for “abusing” his phone through derogatory text message and then hanging up, Reuters reports.
– He denied the accusations and said that the man [handledaren, reds. anm.] tried to get him to convert to Islam, his lawyer tells al-Jazeera, something the supervisor denies.
According to the lawyer, the verdict must be appealed.
Pakistan ranks fifth in the list of 50 countries of the Christian organization Open Doors where the persecution of Christians is worst.
The Foreign Ministry writes in a report that “the so-called blasphemy law provides for the death penalty or life imprisonment for blaspheming or insulting Muslim saints or the Koran.” It is added that “it happens that the law is abused in personal and property disputes as a means of pressure or to threaten, among other things, minorities and journalists.”
– People can be accused of blasphemy even if it is not a religious injustice at all. It is a way to resolve conflicts with people who are not spoken to because it is very difficult to defend against this method, says Peter Paulsson, Secretary General of Open Doors Sweden.
In Pakistan, where about 96 percent of the population are Muslim, small groups of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists are vulnerable. According to Peter Paulsson, the majority of those convicted of blasphemy are Muslims. But Christians are over-represented, making up only 1.6 percent of the country’s population.
– The Blasphemy Law was established in 1986 and there are attempts to try to alleviate it, but there are groups in the country that are Islamist extremists who strongly oppose it. That’s why it’s hard for authorities to make any changes, says Peter Paulsson.
About 80 people are in prison convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan, half of whom are in danger of life imprisonment or execution, according to the US Commission for International Religious Freedom, according to al-Jazeera.
Last year he became a Christian the woman Asia Bibi a symbol of the law of blasphemy. She was finally acquitted in the Supreme Court of a death sentence, for lack of evidence, and fled the country.
Before that, she had spent eight years in prison, accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in connection with a dispute with some neighbors, and convicted by a local court of drinking water from the same cup as a Muslim.
Read more:
University teacher sentenced to death for insulting the prophet
Therefore, rumors of blasphemy can lead to the death penalty in Pakistan.
Sentenced to death for blasphemy: now Asia Bibi has left Pakistan
