Pakistani court grants bail to Christian in blasphemy case
By BABAR DOGARMarch 1, 2021 GMT
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) A Pakistani court on Monday granted bail to a Christian man convicted in 2018 while still a teenager of insulting Islam by posting a picture of Islam’s holiest site on social media, a defense lawyer said.
The court order in the eastern city of Lahore came more than four years after Nabeel Masih was arrested. He was detained after a mob accused him of committing blasphemy by sharing a picture of Kaaba in Mecca on Facebook. He was 16 years old at the time.
According to his lawyer, Naseeb Anjum, Masih was granted bail by the Lahore High Court. It was unclear exactly when Masih would be freed.
March 2, 2021 04:50:36 pm
The Lahore High Court in Pakistan on Monday granted bail to a 20-year-old Christian man convicted of blasphemy. Nabeel Masih was 16 years old when a photo of the Kaaba, a holy site in Islam, with a pig on top of it appeared on his Facebook page.
According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), police quickly removed the image from Masih’s Facebook page, and “it is still unknown whether Masih posted the photo himself or was just tagged in the photo.”
Masih was convicted of violating sections 295 and 295-A of the Pakistan Penal Code and was denied bail multiple times despite his appeals. In a 2016 report, Audrey Gaughran of Amnesty International criticized the broad blasphemy laws, saying, “once a person is accused, they become ensnared in a system that offers them few protections, presumes them guilty, and fails to safeguard them against people willing to use violence.” The report also found that the laws are used “to
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