Daily Times

A court in Rawalpindi sentenced four men to death for posting blasphemous content online, a prosecution lawyer told AFP on Monday.

“They were sentenced to death … on Friday for spreading blasphemous content online against the Prophet Muhammad (PUBH) and the Quran,” Rao Abdur Raheem, a lawyer from the Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan, a private group which brought the case to court, told AFP.

“Our case was supported by forensic evidence from the devices used in this heinous act,” he added.

According to the court order dated January 24, the four individuals were sentenced to death by hanging for violating Section 295C (Use of derogatory remarks, etc, in respect of the Holy Prophet [PBUH]) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

They were also sentenced to life in prison under 295B (defiling, etc, of the Holy Quran) and 10 years imprisonment under 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting Its religion or religious beliefs). “All the above-mentioned sentences of imprisonment shall run concurrently,” the order read.

The four were charged under sections 295A, 295B, 295C, 298A (use of derogatory remarks, etc, in respect of holy personages) and Section 11 (hate speech) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act in October 2022, according to a first information report.

A member of a support group formed by the families confirmed the sentence to AFP and said the group would challenge the conviction.

“The pattern of arrests and prosecutions in this case is consistent with previous ones,” said the support group member, who spoke anonymously due to security concerns. “We urge the government to establish a commission to investigate the rise in these cases before these young individuals spend the best years of their lives behind bars.”