Pakistani court acquits Christian man accused of blasphemy

Lahore, Jul 7 (PTI) In a rare judgement, a Pakistani court has acquitted a Christian man accused of blasphemy for lack of evidence, a court official said on Tuesday. "A sessions court on Monday acquitted Danis Albert after the prosecution failed to establish any direct connection between the accused and the alleged act (tearing the pages of a religious book)," the official said. Police had arrested Albert in April, 2024 under Sections 295-A (hate speech) and 295-B (desecration of the holy book) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Mobeen Ilyas, who claimed that he had witnessed a person standing next to an auto-rickshaw tearing the pages of a religious book in Shadman Chowk, Lahore. Albert maintained his complete innocence and denied being present at the crime scene, saying he was implicated by the complainant on a personal grudge against him. Judge Abdul Ghaffar observed that the prosecution's case has been severely compromised by unreliable witness testimony, missing evidence and unverified digital proof, the official said. "The cross-examination revealed that the complainant had not even drafted the application himself. Another key private witness, who testified to seeing a crowd apprehend one person, also failed to identify the accused in open court as the same individual," the official said. The judge acquitted Albert of all blasphemy charges. In Pakistan, most blasphemy cases are registered primarily to settle some grudges between the complainant and accused parties.  Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws and their prescribed punishments are considered extremely severe. Punishments range from long prison terms to the death penalty. People accused of blasphemy are usually deprived of the right to counsel of their choice as most lawyers refuse to take up such sensitive cases. PTI MZ ZH ZH