Rimsha case: Cleric Khalid Chisti acquitted
Eye-witnesses said they made different statements earlier due to various pressures.
Khalid Chisti. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
Islamabad High Court acquitted prime suspect Khalid Chisti of all charges as 6 out of 8 eyewitnesses changed their statements in court, Express News reported on Saturday.
Eye-witnesses said they made different statements earlier due to various pressures.
The cleric was accused of adding pages from the Holy Quran to ashes seized from 14-year-old Rimsha Masih to implicate her and make the case stronger.
Three witnesses who had testified against the cleric had later backtracked from their statements saying that the police had “forced” them to testify on October 10, 2012.
Rimsha was arrested under the blasphemy laws from the outskirts of Islamabad on August 16, 2012 after a mob of angry residents gathered at the Ramna Police Station and accused her of burning pages of the Holy Quran.
The charges against Rimsha led to the exodus of dozens of Christian families from the neighbourhood after cleric Chishti, the imam of a mosque, allegedly issued a decree on his mosque’s loudspeaker to burn Christians of the Mehrabadi village alive.
Islamabad High Court acquitted prime suspect Khalid Chisti of all charges as 6 out of 8 eyewitnesses changed their statements in court, Express News reported on Saturday.
Eye-witnesses said they made different statements earlier due to various pressures.
The cleric was accused of adding pages from the Holy Quran to ashes seized from 14-year-old Rimsha Masih to implicate her and make the case stronger.
Three witnesses who had testified against the cleric had later backtracked from their statements saying that the police had “forced” them to testify on October 10, 2012.
Rimsha was arrested under the blasphemy laws from the outskirts of Islamabad on August 16, 2012 after a mob of angry residents gathered at the Ramna Police Station and accused her of burning pages of the Holy Quran.
The charges against Rimsha led to the exodus of dozens of Christian families from the neighbourhood after cleric Chishti, the imam of a mosque, allegedly issued a decree on his mosque’s loudspeaker to burn Christians of the Mehrabadi village alive.