Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka of the Federal Investigation Agency court sentenced Shagufta Kiran to death on Sept. 18 under the sweeping blasphemy laws of the Islamic nation in South Asia.
“We feel it’s a wrong judgment based on prejudice. The judge didn’t bother to look at the evidence or conduct a proper analysis,” Kiran’s attorney Rana Abdul Hameed said.
A representative of the group that has been providing legal aid to Kiran said it will appeal against the death sentence in the Islamabad High Court on Sept. 21.
Kiran, 40, a medical nurse, was arrested in July 2021 in Islamabad based on the complaints of a Muslim man, Sheraz Ahmed Farooqi, that her remarks in social media were disrespectful to the Prophet Muhammed.
Hameed told UCA News the accused had no intention of hurting anyone. Who would “in their right mind take this risk in our country where clerics hunt for alleged blasphemers?” Hameed asked.
Joseph Jansen, connected with the group that offers legal help to Kiran, expressed serious concern over the increasing misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws in a Sept. 19 statement.
“Religious minorities, especially Christians, are increasingly facing false accusations fueled by personal grudges, property disputes, or religious discrimination," Jansen stated.
Kiran was convicted on blasphemy charges in 2021. Since then, her family has been hiding fearing a backlash in a nation that has witnessed several cases of mob attacks on the families of blasphemy accused.
“Our police are helpless before angry mobs,” lawyer Hameed said.
Kiran’s 20-year-old daughter Nihaal Shagufta told UCA News on Sept. 20 that she last met her mother in 2023.
"I cried so much, but she consoled me. My father had to give up his job as a building contractor. He tried to keep working, but a Muslim acquaintance warned him against it," she said.
Defamation of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad are crimes punished with life terms and death sentences in Pakistan.
Dozens of Muslims and non-Muslims have been convicted for blasphemy, but none have been executed so far under the draconian laws that Pakistan inherited from colonial Britain.
Over the past few years, Muslim mobs have lynched more than a dozen people after accusing them of blasphemy.
Rights activists say blasphemy laws are often exploited to settle personal disputes and victimize innocent people and have called for their repeal.
Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman, was acquitted in 2018 after she spent eight years on death row on blasphemy charges.