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Pakistan Sentences Man to Death for Blasphemy on Facebook

posted by martyb on Monday June 12 2017, @06:03AM   Printer-friendly

BK writes:

From Reuters:

A Pakistani counter-terrorism court has sentenced to death a man who allegedly committed blasphemy on Facebook, a government prosecutor said on Sunday, the first time someone has been handed the death penalty for blaspheming on social media.

[...] Shafiq Qureshi, public prosecutor in Bahawalpur, about 500km (300 miles) south of provincial capital Lahore, said Raza was convicted for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammad, his wives and companions.

"An anti terrorism court of Bahawalpur has awarded him the death sentence," Qureshi told Reuters." It is the first ever death sentence in a case that involves social media."

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by butthurt on Monday June 12 2017, @09:17AM

    by butthurt (6141) on Monday June 12 2017, @09:17AM (#524225) Journal

    > [...] not that long ago the US had a big problem with lynching innocent black people [...]

    There may still be a problem with executing innocent black people:

    From 1996 onwards, seven of the nine principal prosecution eyewitnesses changed all or part of their trial testimony. Dorothy Ferrell, for example, stated in a 2000 affidavit that she felt under pressure from police to identify Davis as the shooter because she was on parole for a shoplifting conviction. In a 2002 affidavit, Darrell Collins wrote that the police had scared him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime, and alleged that he had not seen Davis do anything to Young.
    [...]
    The execution by lethal injection began at 10:53 pm EDT. In his final words, Davis maintained his innocence [...]

    -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Davis [wikipedia.org]

    The prosecution’s case rested entirely on witness testimony.

    -- https://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/16/is_georgia_about_to_execute_an [democracynow.org]

    In New York, a black teenager who maintained his innocence was imprisoned for a lengthy period without trial:

    Kalief Browder (May 25, 1993 – June 6, 2015) was an American who was arrested at the age of 16 for allegedly stealing a backpack. He was imprisoned for three years on Rikers Island without trial and spent most of this time in solitary confinement. Two years after his release, Browder died by suicide.

    -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalief_Browder [wikipedia.org]

    [...] Browder spent nearly 800 days in solitary confinement, a juvenile imprisonment practice that the New York Department of Corrections has now banned.

    -- https://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/1/accused_of_stealing_a_backpack_high [democracynow.org]

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