Pakistan Supreme Court sets date for Bibi blasphemy appeal

After six years on death row, mother-of-five convicted of blasphemy is s granted leave to appeal against execution.

Asia Bibi (C), a Christian mother who convicted of insulting the Prophet Mohammed, with Pakistani Punjab province governor Salman Taseer (R) after handing in her appeal papers against hera death sentShow more

ISLAMABAD // Asia Bibi, the accused in Pakistan’s most infamous blasphemy case, has been granted a fresh chance to escape death after the supreme court confirmed on Friday that it will hear an appeal against her execution next week.

Bibi, a Christian mother of five, has been on death row since 2010 in what some activists have called a battle for Pakistan’s soul as the state walks a sharp line between upholding human rights and appeasing populist hardliners.

“The supreme court of Pakistan under the chair of justice Saqib Nisar will hear Asia Bibi’s appeal against her death sentence on Thursday, October 13,” said her lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook.

“I am very hopeful and confident that my client will get justice ... and she will be able to spend her life with her children.”

Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan and anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.

Rights groups complain the country’s controversial blasphemy legislation is often abused to carry out personal vendettas, mainly against minority Christians.

Bibi was convicted and sentenced to hang in 2010 after an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water. Her supporters maintain her innocence and insist it was a personal dispute.

* Agence France-Presse