After languishing in jail for 18 years for charges under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, a death-row convict was finally acquitted by the country’s top court due to lack of evidence.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, on Wednesday exonerated Wajih-ul-Hassan, lodged in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpath jail, from the blasphemy charges.
A case was registered against Hassan in 1999 for writing blasphemous letters to a lawyer. In 2001, a handwriting expert in his report said that the writing of the accused closely matched with the letters in question, following which a Lahore court convicted Hassan and awarded him death sentence. The decision was later maintained by the Lahore High Court as well.
Under Pakistan’s penal code, the offence of blasphemy is punishable by death or life imprisonment.
In its judgement on Wednesday, the Supreme Court observed that the prosecution has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the letters, which became the basis of blasphemy allegations against Hassan, were actually written by him, and consequently rejected the case.
