Shagufta Kausar and her disabled husband Shafqat Emmanuel have been in prison since 2014 after being arrested for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages to an Islamic leader.

However, their lawyer Saif ul Malook, who also represented acquitted Christian mother Asia Bibi, says that the evidence against the couple is deeply corrupted. According to Malook, one of the couple’s neighbours bought a sim card in Shagufta’s name and sent offensive messages about the Prophet Muhammad to a local Imam in order to settle a score arising from a family dispute; the couple was not even in possession of a phone at the time of the incident.

According to Shafqat’s brother, Joseph, the accused was tortured into a making a false confession. “He told me the policeman hit him so hard that his leg was broken,” the brother explained to the BBC. Joseph added that the bogus conviction has taken a brutal toll on the couple’s four children, who simply “wish to see their parents again.” 

Last year, Amnesty International called Pakistan’s blasphemy laws “overly broad, vague and coercive,” and noted that they’ve been used “to target religious minorities, pursue personal vendettas and carry out vigilante violence.” 

Source: premierchristian.news