A Pakistani court has sentenced a 40-year-old Christian nurse to death on charges she shared derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad in a WhatsApp group. She was arrested in July 2021 in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
According to information from the Catholic news website UCA News, Shagufta Kiran, a mother of four children, was sentenced to death last Wednesday (18). The sentence was imposed by Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka, of the court of the Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan.
Kiran’s lawyer, Rana Abdul Hameed, denied to UCA News that the nurse committed the crime of blasphemy.
“We think it was a misjudgment, based on prejudice. The judge did not bother to analyze the evidence or conduct a proper analysis,” the lawyer said.
“Who in their right mind would take that risk in our country? [compartilhar mensagens críticas a Maomé]where clerics hunt down alleged blasphemers?” Hameed argued.
The group that has been providing legal assistance to Kiran said it would file an appeal in the Islamabad High Court.
The crime of blasphemy was established in the British colonial era and toughened by dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s, carrying the death penalty in Pakistan, although no one has ever been executed for it.
Critics say some people abuse the blasphemy law, often to settle personal scores and to justify persecution of Christians.
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