Now she is in danger because many Islamic organizations and clerics are still demanding that she be hanged.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar announced the long-awaited verdict. She's reportedly been taken to an undisclosed location and some expect she and her family will leave the country.
Her husband, Ashiq Masih, praised the court's decision.
"I am very happy. My children are very happy. We are grateful to God. We are grateful to the judges for giving us justice. We knew that she is innocent," he said.
The 51-year-old Christian mother was arrested in 2009 after her Muslim co-workers accused her of insulting the Muslim prophet Mohammed – an offense punishable by death in Pakistan.
Bibi says she was falsely accused and is very respectful of Muslims and Mohammed.
The alleged incident occurred when Bibi took a sip of water while she was working. Her Muslim colleagues accused her of contaminating the water because she was a Christian.
She's been sitting in prison ever since with the threat of execution hanging over her head.
Human rights activists have been actively seeking her release over the past several years to repeal the Pakistani court's death sentence.
No Pakistani Christian has been held on blasphemy charges longer than Bibi. If she had lost her final appeal, she could have been put to death.
Pakistan's 295-C blasphemy law is based on sharia (Islamic law), which mandates execution for those found guilty of committing blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed.
Even with the court's decision to free her, she is likely not safe.
Other prisoners freed on blasphemy charges have been murdered by Islamic extremists. Muslim radicals assassinated former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Shabbaz Bhatti in 2011. Both men supported Bibi and had called for an end to Pakistan's Blasphemy Law.
"Clearly she will need asylum in a western country where she can live out the remainder of her days in peace," Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the British Pakistani Christians Association, told CBN News. "These charges have been proven false time and again and it is time for her to return home to her family."
The church in Pakistan is urging believers around the world to pray for Bibi and her family.
In 2016, her family gave a statement from Bibi to an Italian newspaper, La Stampa, saying, "I forgive my persecutors, those who have falsely...
Read More HERE
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar announced the long-awaited verdict. She's reportedly been taken to an undisclosed location and some expect she and her family will leave the country.
Her husband, Ashiq Masih, praised the court's decision.
"I am very happy. My children are very happy. We are grateful to God. We are grateful to the judges for giving us justice. We knew that she is innocent," he said.
The 51-year-old Christian mother was arrested in 2009 after her Muslim co-workers accused her of insulting the Muslim prophet Mohammed – an offense punishable by death in Pakistan.
Bibi says she was falsely accused and is very respectful of Muslims and Mohammed.
The alleged incident occurred when Bibi took a sip of water while she was working. Her Muslim colleagues accused her of contaminating the water because she was a Christian.
She's been sitting in prison ever since with the threat of execution hanging over her head.
Human rights activists have been actively seeking her release over the past several years to repeal the Pakistani court's death sentence.
No Pakistani Christian has been held on blasphemy charges longer than Bibi. If she had lost her final appeal, she could have been put to death.
Pakistan's 295-C blasphemy law is based on sharia (Islamic law), which mandates execution for those found guilty of committing blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed.
Even with the court's decision to free her, she is likely not safe.
Other prisoners freed on blasphemy charges have been murdered by Islamic extremists. Muslim radicals assassinated former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Shabbaz Bhatti in 2011. Both men supported Bibi and had called for an end to Pakistan's Blasphemy Law.
"Clearly she will need asylum in a western country where she can live out the remainder of her days in peace," Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the British Pakistani Christians Association, told CBN News. "These charges have been proven false time and again and it is time for her to return home to her family."
The church in Pakistan is urging believers around the world to pray for Bibi and her family.
In 2016, her family gave a statement from Bibi to an Italian newspaper, La Stampa, saying, "I forgive my persecutors, those who have falsely...
Read More HERE
2 comments:
And these barbarians are protected and proliferating in our country.
Is this the peaceful religion that drinks tea flavored with camel dung ?
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