Sunday, September 09, 2012

Pakistani Girl Accused of Blasphemy is Out of Jail

Allegations of evidence-planting make conviction unlikely.

Note:
An Associated Press reporter on the scene said she was taken from the prison in an armoured vehicle and whisked to a waiting helicopter while covered with a sheet to protect her identity.

What kind of society threatens a little girl like that?
A Muslim cleric from her neighbourhood was arrested last week for planting evidence to incriminate the girl, an about-face in a case that has drawn strong international condemnation. Even in Pakistan where there is significant support for punishing people accused of desecrating the Qur’an or insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammed, the girl’s age and questions about her mental state have earned her a degree of public sympathy often lacking in other blasphemy cases.

Her lawyers say they will now push to have the case against her thrown out entirely.