More depredations of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. From Compass Direct:
A Pakistani Christian jailed last week on suspicion of ripping book pages containing Quranic verses appealed to Punjabi police through his lawyer yesterday (September 21) for his case to be cancelled for lack of evidence.
Lawyer Khalil Tahir Sindhu asked Faisalabad city police to throw out the case against his client, Shahid Masih. According to Sindhu, the sole evidence against the young Christian was the testimony of a Muslim man previously accused of the same crime.
Masih, 17, is implicated for breaking article 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, one of the country”s notorious blasphemy laws that criminalizes desecration of the Quran.
If convicted, Masih will serve a life sentence.
The young man allegedly tore pages from a tafseer, a book explaining Quranic verses, while stealing several books from a medical clinic in the Madina Town district of Faisalabad last week.
The charges are based on the testimony of Muhammad Ghaffar, who claimed he had carried out the crime with Masih.
Ghaffar was detained after Dr. Mohammad Arshed Masood arrived at his Madina Town clinic on September 10 to find several books missing and pages ripped from his tafseer, lawyer Sindhu said.
The doctor lodged a complaint with police against Ghaffar, 19, who he suspected of committing the robbery. According to Sindhu, Ghaffar told police that he and Masih had ripped pages from the tafseer when the two broke into the clinic planning to steal and then resell books.
Both suspects are being held in Faisalabad’s District Jail while police conclude their investigation.