Pakistan Court Sentences Three To Death For Blasphemy

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has handed death sentences to three people for social media posts deemed insulting to Prophet Muhammad under the country’s blasphemy laws.

A fourth accused, a college teacher, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for a “blasphemous” lecture he had delivered in the classroom, court official Istifamul Haq told DPA news agency on Friday.

Judge Raja Jawad announced the decision in the capital Islamabad on the charges filed in 2017, Haq said.

The convicted people can appeal in two higher courts to overturn their conviction or ask for mercy from the president.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, a colonial legacy made more stringent by former military ruler Ziaul Haq in the 1980s, envisage death as the maximum punishment for insulting the Prophet.

- aljazeera.com