Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi received by Emmanuel Macron

Text by: Christophe Paget Follow

Christian, sentenced to death for blasphemy, Asia Bibi spent eight years in prison before being acquitted. She now lives in Canada, but wishes to obtain asylum in France. In Pakistan, predominantly Muslim, the issue of blasphemy, often instrumentalized, still poses serious problems. RFI met Saif ul-Malook, the lawyer who saved Asia Bibi.

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When the Supreme Court declared in 2018 that the charges against Asia Bibi were false , the country was blocked by furious demonstrators and its lawyer had to take refuge in the Netherlands.

" People are very sensitive about everything related to religion, to the prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him), " said Saif ul-Malook. Even the most educated become fundamentalists. To me, they don't even understand the Qur'an and the teachings of the prophet. Because the Koran says that it is much better to release 99 guilty parties than to condemn an ​​innocent one. "

Blasphemy laws are extremely strict and no politician dares to criticize them openly. Very few lawyers defend those accused of blasphemy, because, says Saif ul-Malook, the government does not support them: " The government is under pressure from these religious because they vote. During Asia Bibi's appeal, for three weeks they held meetings across the country, press conferences saying that they would kill the judges of the Supreme Court and the lawyers if Asia Bibi was released. If the government had then arrested and tried them for sedition, things would have happened differently. "

► Also read and listen: Interview with Saif-ul-Malook, the lawyer who saved Asia Bibi from hanging

Finally, several dozen of them were sentenced in January 2020 to 55 years in prison each. But according to another lawyer, if the voice of the most extreme has since been less audible, for the judges in charge of these cases the fear is still there.

► Read also: Pakistan: the exfiltration of Asia Bibi, a well kept secret

Asia Bibi requests asylum in France for her, her husband and her two daughters. This illiterate peasant who became the symbol of the blasphemy law in Pakistan had been welcomed in Canada in a secret place. Today, it is in the homeland of French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet, to whom she owes much of her release, that she wants to live.

I think that it is absolutely necessary for every human being to benefit from religious freedom and that is exactly the impression I had in France.

Asia Bibi

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• Pakistan
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• Human rights
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