Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI calls for release of Christian sentenced to hang in Pakistan

The Pope told his weekly public audience in the Vatican of his "spiritual closeness" to Asia Bibi, a mother of five children, who is accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

Last week The Daily Telegraph revealed that she had been sentenced to death after a mob of angry villagers, spurred on by clerics, tried to attack the 45-year-old over a dispute about whether a Christian should be allowed to handle a container filled with drinking water for Muslims.

The Pope said that Christians in Pakistan often faced violence or discrimination as he called for Mrs Bibi's "full freedom".

"I pray for those who are in similar situations that their human dignity and their fundamental rights be fully respected," he said.

Supporters of Mrs Bibi said she had fetched water for other women working in fields in Punjab province, sparking a row over whether the water was still fit for Muslims to drink.

The dispute escalated a few days later, when she was accused of making derogatory remarks against the Prophet Mohammed. She has been in prison for the past one and a half years and is thought to be the first woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Similar convictions are usually overturned by higher courts and Mrs Bibi's family have already lodged an appeal.

However, the verdict has drawn attention to Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which human rights campaigners believe are used to persecute the country's religious minorities and to settle personal rivalries.

Although governed by a secular party, Pakistan's conservative clerics wield considerable influence and few political leaders are willing to risk their ire by repealing the blasphemy laws.

However, Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for minority affairs, said the government was working to reform the law so that it could not be abused.


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