Christian mother of four sentenced to death for ‘blasphemous’ WhatsApp messages in Pakistan
A mother of four has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for sharing allegedly blasphemous messages on WhatsApp. Legal advocates, supported by the leading Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), have vowed to appeal the conviction. Former nurse Shagufta Kiran, 40, received the death sentence on 18 September from the Federal Investigation The post Christian mother of four sentenced to death for ‘blasphemous’ WhatsApp messages in Pakistan appeared first on Catholic Herald.
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A mother of four has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for sharing allegedly blasphemous messages on WhatsApp.
Legal advocates, supported by the leading Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), have vowed to appeal the conviction.
Former nurse Shagufta Kiran, 40, received the death sentence on 18 September from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) court in Islamabad. She was also fined 300,000 Pakistani Rupees (more than £800).
The sentencing came more than three years after FIA representatives stormed her home in Rawalpindi and arrested her, acting on a complaint that alleged she had shared comments in a WhatsApp discussion group that were disrespectful to Islam’s Prophet Mohammad.
Shagufta was convicted under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, whereby insulting the Prophet carries a mandatory death sentence.
“We are deeply disappointed. Justice has not been served in Shagufta’s case,” Naeem Yousaf Gill, Executive Director of the National (Catholic) Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), told ACN. “She will take her case to the High Court.”
Mr Gill, who explained that the NCJP had provided paralegal support for Shagufta’s family and funded her legal fees early on in the case, added: “We urge all our friends and supporters to pray for her and her family.”
The NCJP head, whose organisation is part-funded by ACN, said: “At a wider level, the state must counter the rising radicalisation that triggers such incidents.”
He urged the Pakistan government to “strictly target” individuals who fabricate allegations with malicious intent.
The complaint against Shagufta was registered by Shiraz Ahmed Farooqi, a Muslim man who said that in September 2020 Kiran shared the allegedly blasphemous content in a WhatsApp group he administered.
Shagufta’s attorney, Rana Abdul Hameed, reportedly told media that the accused had insisted she did not author the contentious content shared in the WhatsApp group, called “Pure Discussions”.
According to Mr Hameed, Shagufta joined these sorts of discussion groups to proclaim her Christian faith.
Mr Hameed told Christian media: “I met [Shagufta] after the judge issued the sentence and can confirm that she is very hopeful of a positive outcome from the superior courts.
“However, she misses her family a lot and wants to reunite with them as soon as possible.”
Shagufta’s husband and son were arrested alongside Shagufta in 2021 but were soon released.
Aid to the Church in Need has provided longstanding support for the NCJP, which provides legal and paralegal aid for victims of blasphemy and raises awareness of justice issues affecting Christians and other minorities across Pakistan.
Shagufta’s case comes at a time when violent attacks on Pakistan’s Christian minority are being “co-ordinated and meticulously planned”, according to reports.
While the verdict in Pakistan will appear extreme and entirely wrong to Western mindsets, and the occurrence of which as well as the draconian context an impossibility in liberal democracies, it comes at a time when freedoms of speech and conscience in the UK that were held to be inviolate are coming under increasing pressure and governmental interference.
The new Labour government is enacting controversial new legislation from 31 October that would bar protests – which includes silent prayer – within a so-called buffer zone of 150 metres of a clinic or facility providing abortion services.
The last Conservative government had informed police that silent prayer should be allowed inside the new “safe access zones”, following controversy and protests about Christians being arrested for what were in effect the first “thought crimes” to be penalised in the UK for centuries.
But the new Labour government has ditched draft guidance by the Conservatives that would protect silent prayer. The changes mean that silent prayer will be banned in the zones, although it will be at the discretion of the police to determine whether it meets the threshold for prosecution.
RELATED: Silent prayer at abortion clinics again faces ban and criminal prosecution
Photo: Muslims in Pakistan protest against Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa after a ruling he issued related to blasphemy that sparked an online backlash and led to thinly veiled death threats, Islamabad, Pakistan, 23 February 2024. The campaign targeting Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa began after he ordered the release of a man from the Ahmadi religious sect, considered heretical by hardline Muslim scholars. (Photo by AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images.)
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