PAKISTAN: FOUR MEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR BLASPHEMY

September 14, 2023:

A Pakistani court on September 4, 2023 sentenced four individuals to death for committing blasphemy by sharing content deemed to be insulting to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and the Holy Qur’an, while another one was awarded seven years of rigorous imprisonment in the case. 
On September 4, a Rawalpindi district court judge, Ahsan Mahmood Malik, handed down the death sentence to Faizan Razzaq, Amin Rais, Muhammad Rizwan, and Wazir Gul for committing the offense, additionally imposing a fine of Rs100,000 ($325). 
“Death sentence of the convict shall not be executed unless it is confirmed by the Honourable Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, Rawalpindi,” the judgment read. 
As per Pakistani law, a death sentence awarded by a lower court has to be confirmed by the relevant high court before its execution. 
Another accused Usman Liaqat was sentenced to “rigorous imprisonment for seven years and with a fine of Rs100,000” in the case, according to the court order. 
The convicts were booked by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in September last year, after the complainant, Umar Nawaz, accused them of creating a WhatsApp group and sharing blasphemous content on it. An FIA investigation team found them guilty of the crime following a forensic analysis of the group, according to the charge-sheet.