The court in Pakistan has released a Christian couple who has been jailed for almost eight years, awaiting death row for false blasphemy charges. Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar were arrested by Pakistani police in July 2013, when a mosque leader by the name of Maulvi Mohammed Hussain accused Emmanuel of using his wife Kausar's phone to send him blasphemous texts that insulted Muhammad and other offensive statements.
According to the Christian Post, the two-member bench of the Lahore High Court in Pakistan ordered the release of the Christian couple on Thursday after a hearing that let both sides present their arguments. During the hearing, Emmanuel claimed that the Pakistan police forced him to confess to the false blasphemy charges by torturing him while his wife and children watched.
The Christian couple's false blasphemy charges included "insulting the Quran" and "insulting the prophet," but little evidence of such was presented to the court in Pakistan, International Christian Concern reported. Pakistani police failed to recover the phone and SIM card allegedly used by the couple to send the blasphemous text messages, which were written in English - a language neither of them speak.
The Sessions Court of Toba Tek Singh sentenced the Christian couple to death April 4, 2014 despite the missing evidence. They were jailed separately, with Emmanuel placed in the Faisalabad District Jail and Kausar sent to Multan Jail. Emmanuel's health deteriorated during his stay in prison due to lack of medical care for injuries he sustained back in 2004. An appeal was made by Amnesty International on behalf of Emmanuel, urging the prison to provide him with proper healthcare due to alleviate his "sharp decline."
The Christian couple's attorney, Saif-ul-Malook called it a "bogus case" and according to him, the session judge who visited the Faisalabad Jail described Emmanuel as a "hopeless case." Malook explained, "It means that being Christian and a blasphemy accused is itself sufficient for being hated by police, judges, lawyers, and the overall society. They are left to die."
Pakistan's Penal Code Sections 295-B and 295-C, under which the Christian couple were arrested and charged, are often used by individuals who are motivated by personal vendettas or religious hatred. Emmanuel and Kausar were said to have minor conflicts with their neighbors, which is why Hussain conspired to steal Kausar's National Identity Card and use it to purchase a SIM card that he later used to send blasphemous texts to himself.
ICC Regional Manager William Stark expressed their relief that the court in Pakistan has decided to acquit the Christian couple on death row after almost eight years of imprisonment. However, the ICC leader pointed out that Pakistan's blasphemy laws continue to be abused and those who do must be "rooted out and punished."
"Too often these laws have been a tool in the hands of extremists seeking to stir up religiously motivated violence against minorities," Stark argued. "Without reform, religious minorities will continue to face false blasphemy accusations and the violence that often accompanies these accusations."
