Asia Bibi blasphemy case

In 2010, a Pakistani Christian woman, Aasiya Noreen (Urdu: آسیہ نورین, romanized: Āsiyāh Naurīn, [ˈɑːsiɑː nɔːˈriːn]; born c. 1971), commonly known as Asia Bibi (آسیہ بی بی) or Aasia Bibi, was convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani court and was sentenced to death by hanging. In October 2018, the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted her based on insufficient evidence, though she was not allowed to leave Pakistan until the verdict was reviewed. She was held under armed guard and was not able to leave the country until 7 May 2019; she arrived in Canada the next day.

On 29 January 2019, a petition requesting an appeal against the court's decision to acquit Noreen was rejected, "lifting the last legal hurdle in the case and paving the way for her to leave the country." On 11 April 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan (who had previously attacked hardliners appealing them to be calm) stated that a "complication" had delayed her departure from the country. On 8 May 2019, she landed in Canada and was reported to be doing well. The blasphemy law in Pakistan has resulted in the extrajudicial killings, incited by accusations, of over 60 people, has been blamed for dozens of communal attacks that have taken place against religious minorities on the pretext of blasphemy; it has been used by individuals as a tool for revenge against other people. Noreen was the first woman in Pakistan to be sentenced to death for blasphemy and would have been the first person in Pakistan to be executed for blasphemy under the current law.

On 29 January 2019, Pakistan's Supreme Court upheld the acquittal on blasphemy charges and ruled that she was now free to leave Pakistan, where she was facing death threats, and join members of her family who were (according to unconfirmed reports) already abroad. Violent protests erupted across Pakistan, demanding the execution of the judge and Noreen. While her lawyer, who escaped to Germany, said that Asia was in Canada, others allege that she was being held in a secret location in Islamabad and that it is not clear when she would leave or where she would go.

On 8 May 2019, Noreen arrived in Canada, where she was reunited with her family who had previously arrived in the country before her. International Christian Concern, an organisation long advocating for her release, released a statement saying that "Our prayers are now with Asia and her family as they seek peace and security in a new country". In 2020, she claimed asylum in France. In February 2020, Asia Bibi was interviewed by Open Doors in Paris, where she shared her feelings about her life and how her Christian faith helped her through her imprisonment that was a result of a false accusation.

On 31 October 2018, the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted Noreen, citing "material contradictions and inconsistent statements of the witnesses" which "cast a shadow of doubt on the prosecution's version of facts." The decision sparked protests headed by Islamist parties in major cities of the country, but was praised by human rights groups and those advocating on behalf of Christian minorities, such as International Christian Concern, Open Doors and Aid to the Church in Need. On 2 November 2018, however, the Government of Pakistan signed an agreement with the Tehreek-e-Labbaik political party (TLP), which was leading the protests; this agreement barred Noreen from leaving the country. It led to accusations that the executive was capitulating to extremists. Italy, Canada, as well as other Western countries worked to help her leave Pakistan. On 7 November 2018, she was released from the New Jail for Women in Multan. However, by Christmas, she was reported to have spent Christmas Day in some form of custody.

On 8 October 2018, a three-judge bench comprising CJP Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Mazhar Alam reserved its judgement on the final legal appeal. On 31 October 2018, the Supreme Court in a 56-page detailed judgement authored by Nisar, with a separate concurring opinion note from Khosa, acquitted Asia Bibi of blasphemy charges after accepting her 2015 appeal against her sentence. The court also ruled that "she was free to go, if not wanted in connection with any other case". In his verdict, Khosa noted:

Saif-ul-Mulook, the lawyer who defended Asia Noreen, states that "his life has not been the same since; he rarely socialises, lives in a constant state of hypervigilance and has been inundated with threats." The South China Morning Post and Christian Today reported that he is now an "easy target" for extremists. On 3 November 2018, he was reported as "having fled" the country, to the Netherlands. Saif-ul-Mulook maintains that the United Nations "kept me for three days and then put me on a plane against my wishes" as he "refused to leave the country without ensuring that his client was out of prison."

On 2 November 2018, the Government of Pakistan under the administration of Imran Khan and the Islamist Tehreek-e-Labbaik political party, which encouraged the protests against Noreen, came to an agreement that barred her from leaving the country, in addition to releasing Tehreek-e-Labbaik protesters. Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, the religious affairs minister, and Muhammad Basharat Raja, Punjab's minister for law, signed the agreement on behalf of the government. The deal included expediting a motion in the court to place Asia Noreen on Pakistan's no fly list, known officially as the Exit Control List (ECL). Pakistani authorities would not release Asia Noreen until the "Supreme Court makes a final review of its verdict" as "Ghulam Mustafa, the lawyer representing a provincial cleric in Punjab who had filed the initial blasphemy charges against Noreen, petitioned the Supreme Court requesting that the judges review her acquittal." Similar reviews have taken years to process. The TLP agreed to end its three-day protest sit-ins across the country and its leaders asked the protesters to disperse peacefully.

On 7 November 2018, a release order arrived at the New Jail for Women, in which Noreen was incarcerated in Multan. Local news reported that she had been flown to PAF Base Nur Khan and would depart the country on a charter plane to the Netherlands. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the media reports that she had left Pakistan, stating that she was "in a safe place in Pakistan".

British member of Parliament Mike Gapes, then of the Labour and Co-operative Party, suggested in November 2018 that the UK should reassess their relationship with Pakistan, and Rehman Chishti resigned as Britain's trade envoy to Pakistan in the same month, partially in protest to the government's refusal to offer Noreen asylum. US senator Rand Paul spoke to President Donald Trump about securing asylum for Noreen in that nation.

Noreen was reported to have spent Christmas 2018 in custody. Joseph Nadeem, the man guarding her husband and family, said that Islamists had fired at the gate of their home and that they had to move five times in order to evade them.

Italy: Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister, stated: "I want women and children whose lives are at risk to be able to have a secure future, in our country or in other Western countries, so I will do everything humanly possible to guarantee that [for Bibi] ... It is not permissible that in 2018 someone can risk losing their life for a ... hypothesis of blasphemy". Salvini further stated that "Italy had nothing against the Pakistani government" but that the "enemy is violence, extremism and fanaticism".

On 22 July 2015, the Supreme Court suspended Noreen's death sentence for the duration of the appeals process. In November 2015, her lead attorney, Naeem Shakir, announced that, after two postponements in 2015, the Supreme Court would hear an appeal in Noreen's case on 26 March 2016. The hearing was rescheduled for 13 October 2016, but on that morning when it was the turn of the case "Asia Bibi against the state", one of the three members of the bench of judges of that section – Iqbal Hameedur Rehman – refused to be part of the bench, which led to the postponement of the hearing to an undetermined date. The Judge later resigned in a handwritten letter addressed to Mamnoon Hussain, the President of Pakistan, without stating any specific reasons for his resignation. On 26 April 2017, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar declined a request for the early hearing of the case in the first week of June made by her lawyer Saiful Malook.

In 2015, Polish filmmakers, inspired by the memoir, produced the film Uwolnić Asię Bibi ('Freedom for Asia Bibi').

According to Human Rights Watch, Noreen's situation is not unusual. Though no one has been executed for blasphemy yet in Pakistan, the accused often remain imprisoned for a long time while the case is being processed. In May 2014, Noreen's appeal hearing was delayed for the fifth time.

On 16 October 2014, the Lahore High Court dismissed Noreen's appeal and upheld her death sentence. On 20 November 2014, her husband appealed to the President of Pakistan for clemency. On 24 November 2014, her lawyer appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

A Barelvi mosque was built in 2014 in Islamabad named after Mumtaz Qadri, who assassinated the Punjab governor Salman Taseer for defending Noreen. Qadri was convicted by the Islamabad High Court, sentenced to death and hanged in February 2016.

French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet [fr] assisted Noreen in writing a memoir titled Blasphemy: A Memoir: Sentenced to Death over a Cup of Water (2013, .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}ISBN 1613748892). Noreen is illiterate, and Tollet was unable to visit her directly due to prison restrictions. She conducted interviews through Noreen's husband, who passed questions and answers between them. Tollet also met other members of Noreen's family, including her children and sister, and had known Shahbaz Bhatti before his assassination. In August 2020, she distanced herself from the memoir, stating that she was not involved in its planning, did not recognize the story as hers, and did not agree with its conclusions regarding Pakistani law.

On 4 January 2011, at Kohsar Market of Islamabad, governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer was assassinated by Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri, a 26-year-old member of his security team, because of his defence of Noreen and opposition to the blasphemy law. Mumtaz Qadri was sentenced to death for the assassination and hanged on 29 February 2016. Taseer was outspoken in his criticism of the law and the verdict in Noreen's case. The next day, thousands turned up for the governor's funeral in Lahore in spite of warnings by the Taliban and some clerics, while a portion of the Pakistani population also praised Qadri as a hero; thousands of Sunni Muslims rallied in support of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan after the murder, and 500 Barelvi clerics prohibited their followers from sending condolences to the family of Taseer. This resulted in concerns that the public was becoming tolerant of extremists.

Prison officials said that Noreen "wept inconsolably" on learning of Taseer's assassination while repeatedly saying, "That man came here and he sacrificed his life for me." Father Andrew Nisari, a senior Catholic spokesperson in Lahore, described the situation as "utter chaos". Seven months later, in August 2011, Taseer's 28-year-old son, Shahbaz, was kidnapped. Shahbaz Taseer was later found or released in March 2016, and he returned to Lahore on 9 March after five years in captivity.

Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti said that he was first threatened with death in June 2010 when he was told that he would be beheaded if he attempted to change the blasphemy laws. In response, he told reporters that he was "committed to the principle of justice for the people of Pakistan" and willing to die fighting for Noreen's release. On 2 March 2011, Bhatti was shot dead by gunmen who ambushed his car near his residence in Islamabad, presumably because of his position on the blasphemy laws. He had been the only Christian member of Pakistan's cabinet.

Noreen denied that she had committed blasphemy and said that she had been accused by her neighbor to "settle an old score". In November 2010, Muhammad Naveed Iqbal, a judge at the court of Sheikhupura, Punjab, sentenced her to death by hanging. Additionally, a fine the equivalent of $1,100, was imposed on her.

The general population was less sympathetic towards Noreen. Several signs were erected in Sheikhupura and other rural areas declaring support for the blasphemy laws, including one that called for Noreen to be beheaded. Mohammad Saleem, a member of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan party, organized a demonstration in Rawalpindi and led a small crowd chanting, "Hang her, hang her." In December 2010, a month after Noreen's conviction, Maulana Yousaf Qureshi, the Muslim cleric of the Mohabaat Khan Mosque in Peshawar, announced a Rs. 500000 (US$2,200) Pakistani rupee bounty to anyone who would kill her. One survey reported that around 10 million Pakistanis had said that they would be willing to personally kill her out of either religious conviction or for the reward. The village mosque in Ittan Wali was reportedly indifferent towards Noreen's plight; its imam, who helped register the case against her, Qari Mohammed Salim, stated that he had wept for joy on learning that she had been sentenced to death and threatened that some people would "take the law into their own hands" should she be pardoned or released. However, journalist Julie McCarthy suggested that the country's "more peaceful majority views" had been overshadowed by the more vocal fundamentalists.

In June 2009, Noreen was accused of blasphemy after an argument with co-workers while harvesting berries. She was subsequently arrested and imprisoned. In November 2010, a Sheikhupura judge sentenced her to death by hanging. The verdict was upheld by Lahore High Court and received worldwide attention. Various petitions for her release were created by organisations aiding persecuted Christians such as Voice of the Martyrs, including one that received 400,000 signatures; Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis called for the charges to be dismissed. She received less sympathy in comparison in the country, where some adamantly called for her to be executed. Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer were both assassinated for advocating on her behalf and opposing the blasphemy laws. Noreen's family went into hiding after receiving death threats, some of which threatened to kill Noreen if released from prison. Muslim cleric Maulana Yousaf Qureshi announced a bounty of 500,000 Pakistani rupees to anyone who would kill her.

In June 2009, Noreen was harvesting falsa berries with a group of other women farmhands in a field in Sheikhupura. She was asked at one point to fetch water from a nearby well; she complied but stopped to take a drink with an old metal cup she had found lying next to the well. A neighbor of Noreen, Musarat, who had been involved in a running feud with Noreen's family about some property damage, saw her and angrily told her that it was forbidden for a Christian to drink water from the same utensil from which Muslims drink, and that some of the other workers considered her to be unclean because she was a Christian, referring to the caste system in Pakistan. Noreen recounts that when they made derogatory statements about Christianity and demanded that she convert to Islam, she responded, "I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind? And why should it be me that converts instead of you?" An argument ensued.