Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday 31st October announced the acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Catholic woman who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010 for blasphemy.

Asia lost the appeal, in 2014, but in 2015 the Supreme Court decided to stop the execution. Now the acquittal, which comes because “there are contradictions among the witnesses”.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar announced the verdict to a packed courtroom and ordered Asia Bibi released. She has been held at an undisclosed location for security reasons and is expected to leave the country.

Asia Bibi, mother of four children, was denounced in 2009 by a woman who claimed she had insulted Islam during a discussion in Punjab among some farmworkers. Two Muslim women refused to drink from a container used by a Christian. A few days later, a mob accused her of blasphemy. She was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.

Crowded demonstrations to protest against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the sentence. Particularly on the streets of Lahore by militants of the radical Islamic party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) (photo).

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