Pakistani court docket docket sentences man to lack of life for WhatsApp ‘blasphemy’ | World Info

An anti-terrorism court docket docket in northwest Pakistan has convicted and sentenced a Muslim man to lack of life after he was accused of posting Pakistan court docket docket sentences man to lack of life for blasphemy in a WhatsApp group.

Blasphemy is a massively delicate state of affairs in Muslim-majority Pakistan, the place even unproven allegations can stir mobs and violence.

Syed Muhammad Zeeshan was convicted beneath the Prevention of Digital Crimes Act and Anti-Terrorist Act by the court docket docket in Peshawar on Friday.

“Accused Syed Muhammad Zeeshan, son of Syed Zakaullah in custody has been convicted and sentenced after being found accountable”, the court docket docket order acknowledged, a reproduction of which was obtained by AFP.

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Zeeshan, who’s a resident of the northwest metropolis of Mardan, was moreover fined 1.2 million rupees ($4,300) and handed a whole of 23 years imprisonment.

He has the correct to enchantment.

The case arose after Muhammad Saeed, a resident of Talagang in Punjab province filed an software program with the Federal Investigation Firm two years previously accusing Zeeshan of posting blasphemous content material materials in a WhatsApp group, Saeed’s counsel Ibrar Hussain instructed AFP.

The “FIA had confiscated Zeeshan’s cell-phone and its forensic examination proved him accountable”, he acknowledged.

Whereas Pakistan’s authorized pointers prohibiting blasphemy can carry a doable lack of life sentence, up to now it has on no account been enforced for the crime.

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Although many situations comprise Muslims accusing fellow Muslims, rights activists have warned that non secular minorities — notably Christians — are generally caught inside the crossfire, with blasphemy costs used to settle personal scores.

Based mostly on the Nationwide Charge of Justice and Peace, a human rights and approved assist group in Pakistan, 774 Muslims and 760 members of various minority non secular groups had been accused of blasphemy inside the ultimate 20 years.