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** Pakistan: Young Christian Unjustly Sentenced to Death ([link removed])
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by Uzay Bulut • January 19, 2024 at 5:00 am
* "The superintendent of police stated in his report that neither he nor the eyewitness found any blasphemy in Shahzad's conversation. His investigation also found that Shahzad was a minor, illiterate and did not have clear knowledge of any religion and only repeated words at the direction of Ishtiak Jalali." — CeCe Heil, Senior Counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, July 11, 2023.
* "Based on this investigation the police literally said he was not guilty. He had not committed any blasphemy." — CeCe Heil, July 11, 2023.
* "[A]s a juvenile, Shahzad was entitled to be immediately released on bail and the judge obviously was not going to follow the law.... A much bigger plan seemed to be in place with the mob controlling the outcome..... This happens because Muslim fanatics pack courtrooms to intimidate the judges." — CeCe Heil, July 11, 2023.
* According to the organization Open Doors, the persecution of Christians in Pakistan is "extreme"...
* It would be advisable for the US government to suspend all aid to Pakistan until its government takes concrete steps to free the many victims of its deadly blasphemy laws; persuade Pakistan to discontinue enforcing them altogether; improve minority rights, and, most importantly, stop enabling Islamist terrorism.

According to the organization Open Doors, the persecution of Christians in Pakistan is "extreme". It would be advisable for the US government to suspend all aid to Pakistan until its government takes concrete steps to free the many victims of its deadly blasphemy laws; persuade Pakistan to discontinue enforcing them altogether; improve minority rights, and, most importantly, stop enabling Islamist terrorism. Pictured: Thousands of people in Karachi, Pakistan, demand the execution of Asia Bibi, on November 21, 2018. Bibi, a Christian woman, spent 8 years on death row because of a false accusation of blasphemy, before being released and exiled. (Photo by Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images)

Shahzad Masih, a Pakistani Christian, was 16 years old and working in a hospital as a janitor in 2017, when Muslims falsely accused him of blasphemy. Since then, has spent more than five years in prison, and has been sentenced to death by hanging for statements he did not even make.

In 2017, authorities arrested Masih after a Muslim coworker and another man linked with the Islamic terrorist group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Islami Pakistan (TTIP), accused him of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad. In 2022, a court sentenced Masih to death.

According to Pakistan's blasphemy laws, those deemed to have insulted Islam or Islam's Prophet Muhammad can be subjected to the death penalty.

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