Posted on 10/04/2004 8:15:30 PM PDT by miltonim
ISTANBUL, September 27 (Compass) -- A Pakistani court in Faisalabad has sentenced a mentally handicapped Christian to life in prison, ruling the 26-year-old man guilty of blasphemy against the Quran, the holy book of Islam. Despite medical evidence of the defendant’s manic-depressive condition, Shahbaz Masih was sentenced to 25 years in prison -- the equivalent of a life sentence under Pakistani law -- by Judge Mohammed Shahid Rafique of the Faisalabad Additional Sessions Court on September 25.
More than 60 Muslim clerics and their supporters, many of them armed, were present in the court when the judge announced his verdict. Afterward the crowd surged outside the courthouse, shouting slogans praising the judge and Islamic law, and denouncing other religions.
Masih had been accused by local Muslim cleric Qari Mohammed Rafiq of tearing up some leaflets containing verses from the Quran and scattering them at the shrine where a revered Muslim holy man was buried near Faisalabad.
Reportedly Masih was wearing a cross necklace at the time of the incident. In the police report filed by investigating officer Mohammed Sajah Hussein, the Muslim officer declared that Masih’s alleged conduct had “hurt his religious sentiments.”
Arrested on June 4, 2001, Masih has been jailed ever since in the Faisalabad District Jail, housed in a crowded prison ward reserved for mentally ill prisoners. He was charged under Articles 295-A and B of the Pakistan penal code, which call for life imprisonment for desecrating the Quran or any extract from it.
Testifying under oath on January 7 of this year, psychiatrist Dr. Pervez Ahmed declared that Masih’s diagnosis when he was hospitalized at the Punjab Institute of Mental Health in Lahore from September 23 to October 4, 2000, was “at that time bipolar effective disorder, currently manic episode.” Masih escaped from the hospital on October 4, the doctor noted.
The maternal side of Masih’s family has a history of mental disorders, including his mother’s current condition of insanity.
Article 84 of the Pakistan penal code prohibits the conviction of a person who because of “unsoundness of mind” is unaware of the nature of offenses he has committed.
“This law protects mentally sick persons,” lawyer Khalil Tahir stated. “But because of pressures from the Muslim clergy and religious fanatics, the judge has announced his verdict against an innocent, mentally retarded young man.”
From a Catholic family in Lahore, Masih is single. According to his defense lawyer, Masih’s father and other relatives have been afraid to visit him in prison, fearful of incurring violent attacks against their family for ties with an alleged “blasphemer.”
Tahir told Compass today that he plans to file an appeal before the Lahore High Court within the next few days, as soon as he can obtain a certified copy of the Faisalabad court’s judgment against Masih.
Saturday’s judgment was the second life-sentence verdict handed down by Judge Rafique against a Christian accused of committing blasphemy. Eighteen months ago, the same judge condemned Ranjha Masih, a Christian now in his late 50s, to life in prison for allegedly throwing a stone at a Muslim signboard during a bishop’s funeral procession.
Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws were toughened under the Zia ul-Haq regime, ostensibly to target members of the Ahmadi sect, who are defined as non-Muslims under Pakistani law. But during the past two decades, Muslim extremists have used the harsh, vague statutes as a pretext to jail Christians, who then face death or life-term sentences if convicted of blasphemy.
Although all lower-court convictions against Christians have been overturned eventually, these prisoners have spent long years in jail on false charges that trigger mob violence against them and their families. Several have been murdered while under trial, with those acquitted forced to flee the country for asylum abroad, away from fanatic Islamists determined to assassinate them.
And didn't we--just this year--forgive $2 billion in Pakistan's debt?
These freaks need to be "liberated".
Another good reason for the US to rebuild nuclear warheads to new state of the art condition rather than demil them.
It's just what the enemy wants to bring to America, my friends. Islam is on the march and will not stop until crushed or until it gives you the tender choice of a prayer rug or a coffin.
Perhaps the jihad vermin need to be enlightened by "the light of a thousand suns"!
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