In Chains: Christian Persecution - 2019, Issue 1

grudge against him, his brother said. On
Sept. 1, 2015, Jamshed and Bashir began
spreading word that Masih had disrespected
Muhammad, he said.
Masih was arrested on Sept. 2, 2015, under
Section 295-C of the blasphemy law, which
calls for death or life imprisonment for
blaspheming Muhammad. A day before he
was arrested, a large police contingent had
raided Masih’s village and beat his female
relatives and other Christians in their search
for him, his wife told Morning Star News.
Masih’s wife, Zarina Bibi, told Morning Star
News at that time that police ofYicers kicked
family members and struck them with their
Yists and batons.
“The police just wouldn’t listen to our pleas
that we did not know Masih’s whereabouts,”
she said. “They searched all Christian houses
in the village and tortured everyone they
came across.”
Death Sentences
On Dec. 13, two Christian brothers were
sentenced to death under Pakistan’s
blasphemy law.
Jehlum District Additional Sessions Judge
Javed Iqbal handed Qaiser and Amoon Ayub
the death sentence for allegedly posting
blasphemous content on their website, said
Joseph Francis of the Center for Legal Aid,
Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS).
“But Qaiser insists that he had closed his
website in 2009, but that a Muslim friend
somehow had been able to take the website
back online while keeping it in Qaiser’s
name,” Francis told Morning Star News.
Francis said that CLAAS has Yiled an appeal
against the trial court’s verdict in the Lahore
High Court.
“We hope that the high court will judge the
case on merit, because we believe that the
trial judge has convicted the brothers
without considering the circumstances,” he
said.
Francis said that both brothers are married,
and Qaiser has three children.
Arrested in 2014, they were tried in the
Jehlum District Jail due to security reasons.
Francis told Morning Star News that the two
brothers had Yled Pakistan in 2010 after a
quarrel with some Muslims friends, and
when they returned four years later, police
arrested them on charges of blasphemy.
Christian mother Aasiya Noreen, better
known as Asia Bibi, was on death row for
nine years after a wrongful conviction for
blasphemy. She was acquitted and released
on Nov. 7 but remains in protective custody
until the ruling is reviewed.
Violator of Religious Freedom
On Nov. 28 the United States added Pakistan
to its blacklist of countries that violate
religious freedom, ramping up pressure over
the treatment of minorities in the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a
Dec. 11 statement that he had designated
Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern
(CPC) in a congressionally mandated annual
report, meaning the U.S. government is
obliged to exert pressure to end freedom
violations.
Pompeo a year earlier had placed Pakistan
on a special watch list – a step short of the
designation – in what had been seen as a U.S.
tactic to press Islamabad into reforms.
“In far too many places across the globe,
individuals continue to face harassment,
arrests or even death for simply living their
lives in accordance with their beliefs,”