«The hearing is over, now we look forward to the court’s verdict,» said Saif ul-Malook, Asia Bibi’s lawyer, to Aid to the Church in Need on October 8, 2018, following the final hearing by Pakistan’s Supreme Court on the case of Asia Bibi.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Asif Saeed Khosa and judges, and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, withdrew to deliberate after a hearing lasting more than three hours. «Together with the other three defenders in Asia,» Maloof told ACN, «we stressed that the evidence against the woman was insufficient. The case is mounted on a charge of blasphemy denounced by a local imam who has not witnessed the altercation between Asia and his Muslim colleagues during which the Christian woman would commit blasphemy. Furthermore, we pointed out to the judges as the police chief Ittanwali, near where it happened the fact, it has not tried enough effort to verify the charges. »
«The fact that they are not readily expressed bodes well,» says ACN Thair Khalil Sindhu, former minister for human rights and for the affairs of minorities in the Pakistani province of Punjab and member of the defense team of Asia Bibi during the appeal process Parliamentary assembly of Punjab. Khalil Sindhu, Parliamentary Assembly of Punjab today, was present at the hearing this morning in Islamabad. «There is a high probability that the court has postponed the issuance of the verdict because he’s going to acquit Asia. We hope that intend to organize the transfer of the woman from jail of Multan in a safe place. The fundamentalists are ready to kill her. »
Asia Bibi, a mother of five, has been on death row since November 2010, when she was convicted of blasphemy.
She was accused of the crime in June 2009 following a dispute over a cup of water involving a Muslim co-worker– who reportedly told her that Christians contaminated mugs by drinking from them.
Asia Bibi was sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws after being charged with insulting the Muslim Prophet Mohammed (section 295 C of the penal code).
