Pakistan Christian Rights Watch
08-09-2020
Lahore High Court: According to legal experts, the sentence against the convict will not be implemented until the relevant High Court ratifies the decision.
A court in Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, has sentenced a Christian man to death and fined him for blasphemy. District and Sessions Court Additional Sessions Judge Mansoor Qureshi sentenced Asif Pervez, a Christian, to death and three years in prison for violating the Telegraph Act.
The court sentenced the accused to a fine of Rs 50,000 and ordered that in case of non-payment of the fine, he would have to serve six months imprisonment. A case under Section 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered against 38-year-old Asif Pervez in October 2013 on charges of blasphemy at the Township Police Station in a slightly backward area of Lahore, after which he was arrested. The court directed that the time spent by the accused in jail during the trial should be included in the sentence. The case against Asif Pervez Masih was registered by a person named Master Saeed Ahmed.
According to the plaintiff, Asif Pervez had sent messages based on blasphemy and blasphemy from his mobile phone. It may be recalled that both the plaintiff and the accused were working in the same textile company and the plaintiff was a senior of Asif Pervez in the factory. The trial, which began in 2017, took about three years to complete.
During the trial, the plaintiff presented six witnesses while the statement of accused Asif Pervaiz Masih was also recorded. According to Asif Pervez's lawyer Saif al-Muluk, after the amendment in the criminal law, his client's statement was recorded and Asif Pervez denied the charges against him. According to Saif al-Muluk Advocate, the accused gave an affidavit stating that the plaintiff Master Saeed wanted to convert him to Islam and on refusal he implicated him in a false case.
According to the defense lawyer, the mobile phone on which the case was registered was not his client's. According to legal experts, the convict's sentence will not be carried out until the relevant High Court upholds the decision.
According to Asif Pervez's lawyer Saif al-Muluk, an appeal will be filed against the decision of the Sessions Court. According to the law, after receiving copies of the judgment, the convict has the legal right to appeal against his sentence to the relevant high court within seven days and a two-member bench hears the appeal.