07 October 2020 :
A high court in Pakistan on 6 October 2020 acquitted a Christian man who had been sentenced to death on blasphemy charges in 2014.
Sawan Masih, 32, was convicted of using derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad in a row with Muslim friend Shahid Imran, a barber.
After the accusation of blasphemy in 2013, thousands of people attacked the Christian community of Lahore’s Joseph Colony, where Masih lived, and torched over 170 Christian homes and two churches despite a heavy police deployment.
No one was killed. Punjab’s government later rebuilt the colony.
Masih’s acquittal was announced by Lahore High Court division bench headed by Justice Syed Shehbaz Ali Rizvi.
The appellant raised several objections to the police investigation and said the charges were fabricated by elements who wanted to occupy the colony.
In 2017, an anti-terrorism court acquitted 106 Muslims accused of being involved in the arson attack on Joseph Colony.
Nadeem Anthony, one of Masih’s lawyers, told UCA News that contradictions in witness statements led to the acquittal.
“The judgment is on merit and facts. The trial courts usually succumb to the pressure of blasphemy cases. We welcome the freedom of the father of three, but who will repay the loss and inhuman treatment they met? His family spent months living outside their charred house,” he said.
The Catholic lawyer compared the acquittal to that of Catholic woman Asia Bibi in 2018. In its judgment, Pakistan's Supreme Court also noted contradictions in witnesses' statements.
