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The
Persecuted Church
Pakistan
Acquits Illiterate Christian of Blasphemy
ISTANBUL, June 4 (Compass) -- After four and one-half years
in prison for alleged blasphemy against Islam, Pakistani
Christian Aslam Masih was acquitted today in a 15-minute
appeals hearing before the Lahore High Court. In his mid-50s
and illiterate, Masih was arrested in November 1998 on charges
that he had desecrated the Quran by hanging verses from
the Muslim holy book in a charm around a dog's neck. Although
the prosecution produced only hearsay evidence against Masih,
he was found guilty in May 2002 and sentenced to two life
sentences. In overturning Masih's lower court conviction,
Justice Najam ur-Zaman took what one observer called "a
very aggressive attitude against the prosecution,"
noting that the prosecution's chief witness had retracted
the statement attributed to him by the police. Seven other
Christians remain jailed in Pakistan on trumped-up charges
of blasphemy.
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Copyright 2003 Compass Direct
Compass
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