Christian’s Death Sentence Upheld under Blasphemy Law in Pakistan
Supreme Court acquits his brother.
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday (Oct. 7) announced that it had upheld the death sentence of a Christian convicted under blasphemy laws while acquitting his brother, with rights advocates questioning the contrasting outcomes after years of legal proceedings, sources said.A three-member Supreme Court bench dismissed Qaiser Ayub’s appeal, upholding his death sentence under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which criminalizes derogatory remarks about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam; Ayub was accused of publishing blasphemous material online.
Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and comprising Justices Shakeel Ahmad and Ishtiaq Ibrahim, the bench set aside the conviction and death sentence of his brother, Amoon Ayub, ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish his personal involvement in the alleged offense.
The brothers, residents of Lahore, were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2018. The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench upheld their convictions in 2022.
The case arose from allegations that blasphemous material had been published on a website registered in Qaiser Ayub’s name.
Qaiser Ayub, 49, a computer science graduate, has maintained that he shut down the website in 2009, but that Muslim friends later revived it while retaining Qaiser Ayub’s name in the copyright information. After the allegations surfaced, the brothers left Pakistan for Singapore and later Thailand. Qaiser Ayub was arrested after returning to Lahore in 2014, while Amoon Ayub, 46, was arrested in 2015.
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