Pakistan's Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to hear an appeal by a
Christian woman who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy.
A three-member
panel of Supreme Court judges in Lahore said it would consider the appeal and
ordered that the death sentence for Asia Bibi be stayed, according Bibi's
lawyer, Saiful Malook.
She was
convicted of blasphemy in 2010. An appeal to the high court was rejected last
October. No date had been set for the execution.
Bibi, a mother
of five from Punjab province, was accused of defiling the name of the Prophet
Mohammed during a 2009 argument with Muslim fellow field workers. The workers
had refused to drink from a bucket of water she had touched because she was not
Muslim.
'This was
their way of taking revenge'
In a press conference in 2010, Bibi said
the allegations were lies concocted by a group of women who didn't like her.
"We had some differences, and this was their way of taking
revenge," she said.
Malook told CNN
that, at Wednesday's hearing, he argued there were discrepancies in the
evidence that prosecutors presented at Bibi's trial.
The lawyer said
all records pertaining to the case will now be reviewed by the judges. No date
has been set for the appeal hearing.
Initial news of
Bibi's death sentence sparked outrage among international human rights groups,
which condemned Pakistan's blasphemy law as a source of persecution against
religious minorities.
Bibi wrote about
her ordeal in a 2012 book called "Get Me Out of Here." The book
includes a letter she wrote to her family urging them to have faith in God.
"My
children," she wrote, "don't lose courage or faith in Jesus
Christ."
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