Pakistani Christian man to appeal death sentence for blasphemy

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LAHORE (Reuters) – A Christian man accused of blasphemy in the eastern Pakistani town of Jaranwala will appeal against a death sentence handed down by an anti-terrorism court, his lawyer said on Saturday.

The 36-year old man was convicted of blasphemy over allegations he had desecrated the Muslim holy book, the Koran, claims that fuelled attacks on a Christian neighbourhood in 2023 in which hundreds of houses and churches were torched and thousands of people forced to flee their homes.

“We will file an appeal in the High Court against it,” his lawyer Akmal Bhatti told Reuters, referring to the verdict delivered on Friday night.

Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan. No one has been executed by the state for it, but numerous accused have been lynched by outraged mobs.

In the southern city of Karachi on Friday, a mob of 100-200 people beat a 47-year-old Ahmadi owner of a car workshop to death with bricks and sticks. Ahmadis are a minority group that have faced attacks in Pakistan, considered heretical and accused of blasphemy by some orthodox Muslims.

(Reporting by Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Peter Graff)