Pakistani man acquitted of blasphemy after serving 9 years in prison

Pakistan's Supreme Court has exonerated a man who had served nine years in prison after a lower court had convicted him of blasphemy in 2009.

Mohammad Mansha, 58, was arrested in 2008 after an imam of a mosque in the Bahawalnagar district in Punjab province accused him of desecrating a copy of the Quran, according to The Associated Press.

In 2009, a Punjab judge convicted Mansha of blasphemy and sentenced him to life in prison. The Lahore High Court upheld the sentence in 2014, and the Supreme Court took up the case that same year. Mansha had been provided with a state counsel as he could not afford a lawyer.

A two-judge panel on the Supreme Court acquitted Mansha, citing lack of evidence. During the hearing on Friday, the defense pointed out that the evidence produced by the prosecution was not in accordance with the Evidence Act. The defense lawyer noted that the star witness in the case suffered from hearing and speech impairments, and therefore, could not be considered as a witness under the Evidence Act.

The defense further noted that Mansha was presented to a village council, where he was badly beaten before he was handed over to the police.

Abdul Waheed, the prosecutor in the case, attributed the acquittal to the "faulty" investigation by the police and the lack of "scientific evidence" against Mansha.

Zia Awan, head of Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Assistance, hailed the ruling but said that the Mansha should be compensated for the years he spent in prison on "false" charges. He also urged Pakistan's Parliament to "carefully look into" the country's blasphemy law.

Rights groups have asserted that Pakistan's blasphemy law is often exploited to settle personal scores.

In 2011, a liberal governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by his personal guard after he expressed support for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was jailed after being convicted in a blasphemy case. At the time, Taseer had contended that the blasphemy law was being exploited.

Bibi, also known as Aasiya Noreen, had been accused of insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad after local Muslim women got angry at her because she drank from the same water bowl as them.

She was convicted and sentenced to death in November 2010, even though she had maintained her innocence. She had appealed her sentence to the Lahore High Court, but the hearing was delayed multiple times before the court heard the case and upheld the conviction in October 2014.

Bibi had appealed the conviction to the Pakistan Supreme Court, but the hearing was delayed again in May 2017 after the court rejected a request for the case to be heard in early June that same year.