Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagfuta Kausar

PAKISTAN: POOR CHRISTIAN COUPLE LANGUISHES ON DEATH ROW FOR BLASPHEMY

April 16, 2020:

An illiterate Catholic couple, Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagfuta Kausar, were charged with blasphemy in 2013 and sentenced to be hanged in 2014. Ever since, they have been in prison, denounced MercatorNet.com on 16 April 2020.
A verdict on their appeal was to have been handed down earlier this month, but it was delayed — again. The couple has been on death row for six years.
Supporters say that the allegations are baseless. The couple are illiterate in both Urdu, the local language, and English. Yet they were accused of sending a text message written in English. They have denied the charges.
Shafqat and Shagfuta are simple, struggling village people. Shafqat broke his back in 2004 and has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. Shagfuta was the only breadwinner for their four children.
There was a “confession” – but it was extorted from the crippled Shafqat under torture. He refused until he was told that his wife would be stripped naked and paraded through the streets. That broke him.
A criminal case was registered against Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagfuta Kausar on 20 July 2013 at Police Station of the city of Gojra for blasphemy against the Prophet, an offence under sections 295-B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code which carries the death penalty. The plaintiff is a Muslim cleric named Muhammad Hussain.
They are accused of sending a text message insulting the Prophet to a Muslim cleric.