Pakistani Christian woman placed on death row for blasphemy marks 6th year in jail as fight for release continues

oge okonkwo

June 26, 2015 7:56 PM

Asia Bibi was charged in 2009 after she was accused by a group of Muslim women to have committed an act of blasphemy when she drank from the same water supply as them

Asia Bibi in an undated family handout photo: The Pakistani Christian has filed her last possible appeal against the death sentence for insulting Mohammed

A Christian mother of five children, Asia Bibi who was placed on death row for blasphemy charges is marking her sixth year in a Pakistani prison.

It would be recalled that Bibi was charged in 2009 after she was accused by a group of Muslim women to have committed an act of blasphemy when she drank from the same water supply as them. She was later sent to prison and sentenced to the death penalty.

A U.K. Christian group reports that some attempts are being made to reform sections of the country's controversial blasphemy laws that punish religious minorities.

According to Christian Post, the group also believes that Britain and the U.S. must rethink the way they provide financial aid to Pakistan if they want to see reforms in the country.

"The proposed changes will ostensibly make it more difficult for blasphemy charges to be laid, focusing on proving that any blasphemy was intentional under a legal concept termed Mens Rea translated as 'guilty mind,'" Wilson Chowdhry, president of the British Pakistani Christian Association, told The Christian Post on Wednesday.

"However the large number of extra-judicial killings and insouciance from local police to get involved in blasphemy charges or a pattern of local police authorities cowing under pressure from mobs led by local imams, suggest this law change will have little effect."

In a separate press release explaining more about her case, Chowdhry called her fate a "travesty of justice."

"For some time we have been told that there has been a moratorium on the death penalty because of pressure from Western donors. But even before this vanished at the end of last year, it has become clear that her treatment was, in effect, a slow death sentence by neglect and worse, all for allegedly committing a crime that should not exist — blasphemy," he said.

oge okonkwo