by Art Moore
A Christian sentenced to hang for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad has been granted one final hearing before the Pakistan Supreme Court, according to the Compass Direct news service.
Ayub Masih, 34, was convicted on the testimony of a Muslim who claimed that during a private conversation his Christian neighbor slandered Muhammad by praising Salman Rushdie's book "The Satanic Verses."
Ayub Masih
His case is the first under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law to reach the Supreme Court. Masih was jailed in October 1996 and kept in solitary confinement on death row for nearly four years in Multan's New Central Jail.
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Masih's appeal must be heard due to apparent irregularities in his prosecution. The hearing should be held within the next two or three months, said Masih's defense lawyer, Abid Hassan Minto.
The ruling came as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf arrived in Washington to discuss his country's alliance with the U.S. in the war on terror.
Minto, a prominent Muslim human-rights lawyer, said he believes the Supreme Court will acquit his client.
Masih's death sentence in April 1998 provoked the suicide protest of Catholic Bishop John Joseph of Faisalbad. The bishop shot himself May 6, 1998, on the steps of the Sahiwal courthouse where Masih was convicted. Pakistani Christians interpreted Joseph's death as a protest against the blasphemy law, which can be abused, they argue, because of its vague wording.
Section 295-C of Pakistan's penal code says: "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad ... shall be punished with death and shall also be liable to a fine."
Although no Christians are known to have been executed under the blasphemy law, some have died while in custody and many remain in detention, according to Pakistani human-rights groups. Muslims also have been prosecuted under the law.
In May 2000, two Christian brothers were sentenced to 35 years in prison for blaspheming Muhammad. An ice cream vendor had accused the men of making "bad remarks" against Islam and Muhammad after he refused to serve them with bowls used by Muslims. Shortly after their sentencing, Musharraf retracted a promise to minorities to reform the law. Human-rights groups accused the regime of submitting to pressure from conservative Muslim clerics.
Musharraf had promised to promote changes that would help avoid false accusations, but some Islamic organizations threatened to hold demonstrations.
A U.S. congressman who traveled with a delegation to Pakistan in January, Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., said Musharraf still insists he wants to reform the law.
"President Musharraf assured me that no one would hang because they were convicted under this law while he was president," Pitts said in an interview with the World Evangelical Alliance's Religious Liberty Conference. "He said they were trying to institute some reform in their court system so that the registered cases that are without foundation and totally false would not be going through their legal system."
Pitts acknowledged that "Musharraf does have some damage control to do" with Islamic extremists.
"But I think that he feels that he has the moral high ground in instituting his reforms," Pitts said. "This law is certainly one of the things he wants to reform in due time."