Apex Court Acquits Blasphemy Accused After Nearly Two Decades

Apex Court Acquits Blasphemy Accused After Nearly Two Decades
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday acquitted a blasphemy accused who was sentenced to death by the high court.

In its judgement, the SC observed that the prosecution failed to prove the case against the accused, namely Wajeehul Hassan. The accused had earlier challenged his conviction in the apex court.

In 1998, Hassan was accused by a lawyer for writing blasphemous letters to him after Advocate Ismail Qureshi requested the Federal Shariah Court to change the punishment in connection with blasphemy cases from life sentence to death sentence.

During the hearing, Justice Sajjad Shah observed that the prosecution had not been able to prove that the letters were actually written by Hassan. He later dismissed the case.

Last year, the apex court acquitted Aasia Bibi – a Christian woman accused of blasphemy in 2010 and sentenced to death –by setting aside an earlier judgment of a lower court.

Ex-Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had announced back then that the Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict was null and void and directed authorities to release Aasia Bibi.

She was on the death row since November 2010 after being convicted on the charge of committing blasphemy.

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