Seeking help for a young man sentenced to death in Pakistan for alleged blasphemy, Pakistani human rights lawyer Aneeqa Anthony contacted the International Society for Human Rights on 31 May. A court in the Pakistani city of Bahawalpur (Punjab province) had imposed this sentence on the Christian Nouman Asghar Masih the day before. The 24-year-old is accused of insulting the Islamic prophet, Mohammed. He allegedly showed blasphemous pictures to a group of nine to ten people in a public park at 3.30 a.m. His family testified that he was at home in his bed at the time. The young man has been in prison since 1 July 2019. At the time, the police entered the family’s house in the middle of the night and immediately arrested him.

Anthony is the coordinator of the ISHR’s partner organization “The Voice Society”, which is doing its utmost to support the young man. “When we heard about the verdict, we felt helpless at first because we had been working really hard in the hope of an acquittal. Hearings were held almost every week. We were always there, even though the journey sometimes took six to seven hours,” the lawyer reports. ISHR is also campaigning for the rights of Nouman’s cousin Sunny Waqas, who allegedly carried a disrespectful depiction of the Islamic prophet and went on trial for it. He was arrested just days before Nouman, but was finally released on bail on 3 February 2023 after “The Voice Society” as well as people worldwide campaigned for his release.

Anthony and her team from “The Voice Society” admit they are not defeated and are determined to support Nouman’s appeal against the decision despite the opposition. His family is poor; his father works as a cleaner in a shop. The costs for the defense in the next phase amount to the equivalent of about 3,000 Euros. Any form of support is urgently needed.

Pakistan has a Muslim majority that makes up to 96% of the population while Christians, Hindus, Ahmadiyya, and others make up 4% of the population. Christians are estimated at 1.3% of the total population which makes them a minority religion. Religious minorities such as Christians often face unjustified charges, imprisonment, harassment and sometimes death based on their non-Muslim religious identity.