Court sentences 3 to death for blasphemy in Pakistan

An antiterrorism court in Pakistan sentenced three people two Christians and a Muslim to death for having blasphemed against Islam, a judicial official told EFE Tuesday.

“Two Christians and a Muslim were sentenced to death yesterday for blasphemy,” Gujranwala municipal judicial spokesman Abdul Jabbar said.

Two of the defendants were also fined $6,600 and the third must pay a fine of $4,700 at the conclusion of the trial, in which 11 people testified against them, Jabbar said.

In May 2015, Anjum Naz complained to police that two people, Javed Naz and Jafar Ali, were extorting money from him, threatening to release a video of him making “derogatory” comments about the Prophet Mohammed.

When police detained the two extortionists, they discovered an audio tape on which Anjum Naz insulted the prophet during a speech at a school.

All three people in the case were charged with blasphemy and two of them were also charged with extortion.

The three can appeal their sentences to a higher court, Jabbar said.

Pakistan’s strict antiblasphemy law was enacted under British colonial rule to prevent religious clashes, but abuses began occurring after changes were made to the law in the 1980s by the Islamist military regime of Gen. Mohamed Zia ul Haq.

Attempts to reform the law over the years have been staunchly opposed by Islamic fundamentalists.

In 2011, Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, a minister from the minority Christian community, were murdered for attempting to reform the blasphemy law.