Paul KeenanFresh legal appeal attempt planned
“Bibi has suffered enough.”
With this message, supporters of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman imprisoned in Pakistan under blasphemy legislation have launched a renewed appeal for her freedom.
As appeal hearings into the woman’s case are repeatedly postponed by the judiciary, Christian and Muslim activists for human rights have called for immediate action to release Bibi amid reports that, after four years of solitary confinement, her health, both mental and physical, is now rapidly deteriorating.
The latest calls on the case of Asia Bibi came as her legal team filed yet another petition with a courth in Lahore to have a definite appeal date set.
"We strongly condemn the attitude of the judiciary,” said Akeel Ali Mehdi, a Muslim human rights advocate. “Bibi has suffered enough, as has her family. It is time for justice to be done, and she should receive the necessary care. The courts must immediately address her case."
The judiciary has been accused of deliberately attempting to avoid dealing with the high profile Bibi case, given the violent reaction among some Muslims in Pakistan to any suggestion of a watering down of the nation’s blasphemy legislation. Despite the waving of the court-imposed death sentence against her, a bounty for the killing of Bibi, offered by a cleric, still stands.