This is great news.  Now we must pray together for God to lead the Supreme Court of Pakistan to truth and justice.  We will stand with Asia Bibi!

(World Watch Monitor) Pakistani Christian Aasiya Noreen (known as Asia Bibi) has been allowed to take her appeal against her death penalty for blasphemy to Pakistan’s Supreme Court in the capital, Islamabad. Until the Supreme Court reaches its final decision, Noreen cannot be executed.

Commentators today have praised the Supreme Court for its courage to hear the appeal in the face of strong public sentiment against anyone seen to denigrate Islam, with some calling it a “historic day for Pakistan”.

Her lawyer, Saiful Malook, appeared in front of three Supreme Court judges at the first hearing today (22 July) in Lahore.

After her appeal in Lahore’s High Court was unsuccessful in October 2014, this is now the last chance for them to appeal that her conviction should never have been allowed, due to inadmissible evidence.

While her previous appeal at the High Court in Lahore was rejected, the judges who turned it down conceded that they had based their ruling on a technicality, which they recommended be eliminated in future to make it more difficult to achieve blasphemy convictions.

The appeal judges explained they had no choice but to reject it, given the way Pakistan’s laws are written, and have turned to lawmakers to craft legislation that would empower trial courts to apply a test that would make future blasphemy convictions much more difficult to achieve. That test was not in place when Noreen, popularly known as Asia Bibi, was tried.

No more has yet been heard about what progress, if any, the lawmakers have made on this point.

Noreen’s case has attracted worldwide attention and led to much criticism of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws. (More)

Related:

Asia Bibi’s case before the Supreme Court: sentence suspended and review of the case

“Dialogue with Islam to change the blasphemy law”

Categories: attacks on Christianity, Christian persecution, Christianity in the news, Human Rights Abuses, News Of The Day Heartbreaking & Prophetic, Pakistan

Tags: Asia Bibi, Blasphemy law, christian persecution, news, Pakistan