Pakistan imposes death penalty on Christians for blasphemy
A Pakistani court has sentenced a Christian man to death over blasphemy charges. The man is accused of uploading pictures of torn pages of the Quran on social media, as a police spokesperson told the German Press Agency on Monday. The verdict was handed down by an Anti-Terrorism Court in the city of Sahiwal in the Punjab province.
The incident is believed to be connected to riots in the Pakistani city of Jaranwala, which caused nationwide outrage. Last August, there were severe disturbances in Jaranwala after two men were accused of ripping pages from the Quran, throwing them on the ground, and defacing them with insulting slogans. The man now on trial is said to have subsequently uploaded pictures of these very pages onto the internet.
After the death penalty sentence was announced, international human rights groups strongly criticized Pakistan's blasphemy laws. This particular case has sparked significant debate among Christians worldwide, questioning the fairness of the Koran-related charges against the man. In the aftermath of the ruling, calls for dialogue and reform towards abolishing the death penalty for blasphemy have grown louder.
