Extra Sessions On Friday, Judge Muhammad Tariq Ayub found Wajid Ali, Ahfaq Ali Saqib, Suleman Sajid, and Rana Usman guilty of insulting the Prophet.
A Pakistani court has awarded the death sentence to four men for uploading blasphemous content on Facebook, an official said on Saturday.
According to the court official, the prisoners used four different IDs to post blasphemous content on Facebook.(Unsplash)
Extra Sessions On Friday, Judge Muhammad Tariq Ayub found Wajid Ali, Ahfaq Ali Saqib, Suleman Sajid, and Rana Usman guilty of insulting the Prophet.
According to the court official, the prisoners used four different IDs to post blasphemous content on Facebook.
“The judge after hearing arguments of both prosecution and defence and witnesses accounts awarded the death penalty and 80 years imprisonment to each of them on different counts,” according to the official.
Additionally, they were hit with a PKR 5.2 million punishment. A person named Shiraz Farooqi filed a complaint with Pakistan’s Federal Investigation (FIA) Cybercrime, which filed a case under the Pakistan Penal Code and the PECA (Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act). Amnesty International claims that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are frequently applied against religious minorities and other people who are falsely accused, giving vigilantes the confidence to threaten or murder the accused.
There is ample proof that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws infringe upon human rights and incite individuals to enforce the law themselves. It stated that once someone is charged, they are caught up in a system that provides them with minimal protections, assumes they are guilty, and does not protect them from those who would use violence. According to Amnesty International, the accused are frequently assumed to be guilty in cases of judicial perversion based on scant or no evidence.
Police have the right to arrest someone for blasphemy without even verifying that the charges are reasonable. They usually send cases to prosecutors without carefully examining the evidence, caving in to public pressure from irate groups, such as religious clerics and their followers. Additionally, it stated that after being charged, a person may be denied bail and subjected to drawn-out and unjust proceedings.