The family of a mentally ill British man sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy is calling on authorities to release him.
A court in the city of Rawalpindi last
week handed down the punishment to Muhammad Asghar, 69, over charges
alleging that he wrote letters claiming to be a prophet.
But his family, his lawyer and a British
legal aid group say the court failed to take into account the mental
state of Asghar, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
The sentencing hearing took place last
week behind closed doors without his legal team’s knowledge, they say,
and his lawyer has been blocked from visiting him since.
“We are really upset and concerned that
they will never release him and that he will die in jail,” his family
said in a statement released Monday by the British legal aid and
advocacy group Reprieve. “He has already attempted suicide
unsuccessfully.”
Asghar was convicted under Pakistan’s
controversial blasphemy law, which human rights groups say is used to
settle personal scores and persecute minorities.
Now, his family and lawyer are concerned
that his legal team will be prevented from meeting a key deadline this
week to file an appeal that they say would keep important evidence about
his mental health admissible in the case.
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