Pakistani Christian man to appeal death sentence for blasphemy
The 36-year-old was found guilty of desecrating the Holy Quran, an accusation that led to the 2023 Jaranwala attack
Residents stand amid debris beside the torched Saint John Church in Jaranwala on the outskirts of Faisalabad on August 17, 2023.
AFP
A Christian man accused of blasphemy in the eastern Pakistani town of Jaranwala will appeal against a death sentence handed down by an anti-terrorism court, his lawyer said on Saturday.
The 36-year-old man was convicted of blasphemy over allegations he had desecrated the Holy Quran, claims that fueled attacks on a Christian neighborhood in 2023 in which hundreds of houses and churches were torched and thousands of people forced to flee their homes.
"We will file an appeal in the high court against it," his lawyer, Akmal Bhatti, told Reuters, referring to the verdict delivered on Friday night.
Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan. No one has been executed by the state for it, but numerous accused have been lynched by outraged mobs.
In the southern city of Karachi on Friday, a mob of 100-200 people beat a 47-year-old Ahmadi owner of a car workshop to death with bricks and sticks.
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