Christian couple acquitted of blasphemy charges

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court Thursday acquitted a Christian couple who were sentenced to death more than seven years ago for committing blasphemy.

Shopkeeper Malik Mohammad Hussain and Toba Tek Singh Tehsil Gojra bar’s former president Anwar Mansoor Goraya had complained to police that they received blasphemous text messages from mobile phone number of Shagufta Masih, a supervisor in a school in Gojra. Police had arrested Shagufta Masih and her husband Shafqat Emmanuel, a handicapped person, on July 21, 2013 under Section 295-C.

In April 2014, an additional district and sessions judge in Toba Tek Singh had handed down couple death sentence for blasphemy and fined Rs100,000 each. The judge held that it had been established that the couple’s mobile phone was used to send text messages to the complainants and the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card was registered in the name of the woman. The couple filed an appeal against their conviction in the Lahore High Court. Advocate Saiful Maluk counsel for the couple argued that prosecution had miserably failed in establishing its allegations of using Shagufta’s cell-phone for sending blasphemous text messages.

He claimed that the SIM card used for sending blasphemous messages did not belong to the couple. The complainants were represented by advocate Ch Ghulam Mustafa. After hearing arguments from both sides, a two-member bench comprising Justice Shahbaz Rizvi and Justice Tariq Salim Sheikh overturned the couple’s conviction and ordered their release.