A judge sentenced a Christian to life in prison under Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes for a social media message that relatives say was posted using a phone stolen from him, sources said.
Fanson Shahid, 56, had been beaten in his home in Lahore when arrested in March 2022 and tortured into confessing after he was accused of posting a derogatory remark concerning the prophet of Islam in a comment on a post that one other Christian had shared, his wife said.
The phone on which the Facebook comment was made had been stolen from him in 2019, she said.
Justice Zafar Yab Chadhar of the Additional Sessions Court Gujranwala District, Punjab Province, handed down the sentence on Jan. 24, however the family didn’t disclose it until now.
“We were praying for Shahid’s acquittal because he’s innocent, but the decision has shattered our hopes for justice,” his sister, Sonia Shahid, told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Investigators found Fanson Shahid’s Facebook account was logged on in the brand new phone they recovered in 2022 and presented that as evidence that he had made the comment. His wife, Safia Shahid, said at the moment, “We imagine that the lost phone was misused by someone to post the blasphemous comment, because my husband didn’t use a passcode for its security, and his Facebook account was also logged in.”
Fanson Shahid was convicted under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes, which calls for a compulsory death sentence for derogatory comments about Muhammad, but Chadhar cited as a “mitigating circumstance” that the comment was posted “just once.”
“If a single doubt or ground is offered creating reasonable doubt within the mind of the court/judge to award even death penalty or life imprisonment, it could be sufficient circumstance to adopt alternative course by awarding life imprisonment as a substitute of death sentence,” Chadhar wrote in the decision.
He also handed Fanson Shahid a nice of 100,000 rupees (USD 358). Shahid was also convicted under Section 295-A, which prohibits hurting religious sentiments, and sentenced to a few years in prison.
He was also convicted under Section 153-A, which prohibits causing communal unrest, and sentenced to at least one 12 months in prison and a nice of fifty,000 rupees (USD 179). The judge also sentenced Shahid to a few years in prison under Section 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016, which prohibits promoting religious hatred on social media.
The sentences are to run concurrently, the court’s verdict stated.
Sonia Shahid said the decision shocked the family, members of the Full Gospel Assemblies church. Fanson Shahid has two children, and his family has been forced to relocate from their house as a consequence of fears for his or her security.
Prominent Christian lawyer Lazar Allah Rakha said the decision showed the court had disregarded the defense’s arguments without giving a reason for doing so.
“Moreover, there are glaring contradictions within the statements of the prosecution witnesses which discredit your entire prosecution evidence,” Rakha told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The court blindly relied on the prosecution’s evidence as a substitute of viewing each the prosecution and defense’s versions.”
Rakha said Shahid was entitled to acquittal as prosecutors didn’t prove their case with none shadow of doubt.
Sonia Shahid said the family was scrambling for support to file an appeal within the Lahore High Court. The appeal have to be filed inside 30 days of the decision, and with lower than every week left to submit it, the family has yet to seek out able legal representation.
Fanson Shahid worked as a purchase order officer at Pakistan Railways in Lahore and was as a consequence of retire in eight years when he was arrested on blasphemy charges in 2022.
Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of essentially the most difficult places to be a Christian, because it was the previous 12 months.
