A Christian mother who spent nine years on death row before being acquitted in Pakistan’s most high-profile blasphemy case was released from prison late Wednesday night (Nov. 7), sources said.
The Pakistani government on Friday (Nov. 2) capitulated to demands of Islamist groups protesting the acquittal of Christian mother Aasiya Noreen, better known as Asia Bibi, by agreeing to allow the possibility of a Supreme Court review of the verdict.
Pakistani Muslim radicals have blocked off streets in Pakistan and are calling for the murder of the Supreme Court justices who approved the release of Christian mother, Asia Bibi, from death row earlier this week.
Asia Bibi is a Pakistani wife and mother of five. She and her family were the only Christians in their village. Her fellow workers repeatedly urged her to convert to Islam.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court gave Asia Bibi both her life and her freedom back today when they overturned her 2010 conviction for violating the nation’s blasphemy laws.
Pakistan’s chief justice says he will decide, “soon,” the fate of Aasiya Noreen, a Christian woman whose 2009 conviction on blasphemy charges has fixated world attention on the country’s treatment of religious minorities.
After more than seven years in prison, the first Pakistani Christian woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy has had her Supreme Court appeal delayed, amidst renewed Islamist calls for her to die.
A 24/7 prayer effort will be held for imprisoned and condemned Christian Asia Bibi, who faces her final appeal of the death penalty next week in Pakistan.