By CatholicVote | Created at 2025-01-28 22:31:33 | Updated at 2025-01-30 05:34:25
1 day ago
CV NEWS FEED // A court in Pakistan on Jan. 25 acquitted Christian twin brothers Sahil and Raheel Shahid of false blasphemy charges, citing insufficient evidence brought by the prosecution.
The 18-year-old twins were arrested Aug. 27 after being accused of tearing pages from the Quran at a village fair, an offense that carries a life sentence in Pakistan, Morning Star News reported. Following the recent ruling, they have been released from custody and are reunited with their families.
Judge Farzana Shahzad ordered the release of the twins after their attorney, Javed Sahotra, demonstrated that the accusations had been fabricated and that the police conducted a weak investigation.
During cross-examination of eight witnesses, including the investigating officer and the complainant, none were able to identify the specific passages or verses of the Quran that the brothers were accused of desecrating.
The attorney also argued that Inspector Muhammad Saleem of the Kasur Saddar Police Station lacked the qualifications to investigate the matter, noting his limited education and inability to read Arabic, the language of the Quran.
“Admitting my arguments,” Sahotra said, “the honorable judge ordered the release of the twins and issued a notice to the Kasur district police officer to start an inquiry against the [Investigating Officer] for conducting a weak investigation.”
The Shahid brothers come from a poor and illiterate family in Qulay Wala village of Kasur District, Punjab Province. Watchdog organization Open Doors reported that Punjab Province, home to a significant Christian population, has become a hotspot for persecution in Pakistan.
Pakistan currently holds the No. 8 position on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List, which ranks countries according to the level of danger for Christians living there.
The twins’ case was seen as an attempt to instill fear within the Christian community and force them out of the village, according to the twins’ defense team.
“We believe that this case was a conspiracy against the Christian residents so that vested interests could grab their land and properties,” Sahotra said, according to Morning Star News. “However, timely intervention of the police and our successful defense of the victims scuttled their nefarious designs.”
The U.N. Human Rights Committee has recently expressed alarm over the rising number of false blasphemy accusations in Pakistan, according to Morning Star News. The committee has called for the repeal or amendment of the country’s controversial blasphemy laws, which often lead to violence against religious minorities.
Open Doors’ report revealed that despite making up just 1.8% of the population in the Muslim-majority country, Christians are the victim of roughly a quarter of all blasphemy accusations.
CatholicVote reported several such instances, including the case of a mother of four who was sentenced to death in late 2024 for sending a message on a WhatsApp group chat which contained “content deemed blasphemous against Muhammad.”
Multiple Christians in Pakistan have been lynched by enraged mobs before they could stand trial for their alleged blasphemies.
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