LHC frees blasphemy accused after 14 years

Lahore High Court on Thursday released a mentally ill woman held without trial for 14 years on blasphemy allegations.

LAHORE: Lahore  High Court on Thursday released a mentally ill woman held without trial for 14 years on allegations of desecrating the Quran, her lawyer and court officials said.

Despite "no evidence" being found against 60-year-old Zaibul Nisa, she had been left to languish in the prison section of a mental asylum since 1996, the court said. Nisa's family did not challenge her detention, according to her lawyer.

Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Khawaja Mohammad Sharif, "has ordered the release of Zaibul Nisa after no evidence was found against her," a court official told AFP. "The chief justice expressed his dismay over keeping the woman confined so long without any trial," the official said.

Nisa was arrested in the town of Rawat, near the capital Islamabad, after a local resident filed a complaint at a police station that someone had desecrated the Quran, defence lawyer Aftab Ahmad Bajwa said. Bajwa said that Nisa's name was not even mentioned in the police complaint. "Nobody, not even her relatives, pursued the case. She was sent to jail and then forgotten by everyone," Bajwa told AFP, who took up her case last year for humanitarian reasons.

Complainant Qari Mohammad Hafeez told reporters at the hearing that he had not specified anyone by name in his submission and that police had arrested Nisa of their own accord.

Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law carries the death penalty -- although no one has ever been sent to the gallows for the crime. Two Christian brothers accused of writing a blasphemous pamphlet critical of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) were shot dead on Monday outside a court in the eastern Pakistani city of Faisalabad. Human rights activists want the legislation repealed, saying it is exploited for personal enmity and encourages religious extremism.