A 22-year-old student in Pakistan has been sentenced to death for blasphemy, while another 17-year-old student has been sentenced to life imprisonment. The students are accused of saying insulting words about the Prophet Muhammad through WhatsApp and making offensive pictures and videos.
A 17-year-old student has been sentenced to life imprisonment for blasphemy as a minor. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan. Although no one has been hanged by the state so far for this, there have been several cases in which several accused have been beaten to death by mobs.
According to a BBC report, this action has been taken after the Cyber Crime Unit of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) filed a complaint against the student in 2022. The complainant alleged that he received the objectionable videos and photographs from three different mobile phone numbers.
The FIA alleged that when the complainant’s phone was checked, obscene material was found on his phone. The lawyers of the two convicted students say that they have been implicated in false cases.
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According to the BBC, the father of a 22-year-old student who was sentenced to death for blasphemy will file an appeal against the sentence in the Lahore High Court.
Earlier in August last year, two Christian brothers were accused of ‘desecrating’ the Quran, which led to the vandalism of 19 churches and more than 80 Christian homes in Pakistan.
A key face of the blasphemy controversy has been Christian woman Asia Bibi. The case was one of Pakistan’s most high-profile cases, with the Asia Bibi controversy raging for a decade. Asia’s death sentence was later overturned by the court.
