Pakistani President May Pardon Christian Woman Sentenced To Death

Asia Bibi was sentenced a month earlier to death and her case drew appeals from Pope Benedict XVI and human rights workers who demand her release.

Bibi appeared in a television interview on Saturday from her prison saying the case was triggered by a personal dispute, and protesting her innocence.

She said she wouldn’t think anything blasphemous and asked, weeping, to be set free to attend her little children.

The case came to the attention of the Pakistani blasphemy laws even though critics consider that these laws are sometimes used to persecute Christian people, or other minorities or to settle personal scores.

The minister for minority affairs said on Saturday that the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari has asked for a report on the matter, and added that the president has the capacity to pardon her.

The minister said that the president is concerned about this situation and made it clear that he has the power to pardon her even before the court appeal.

The governor of the Punjab province said that he was convinced the president would soon pardon her. “I will take this petition to the president and he will forgive her,” the governor added.

Amnesty International required Pakistan to revise the blasphemy laws under which this woman was sentenced to death.

Cases of women being sentenced to death become more and more frequent in the countries where a radical Islamic law is being applied. Thus, in Iran a woman is awaiting her execution after being convicted for adultery and murder, while in Afghanistan women were already executed in the course of the year for accusations related to adultery.

Asia Bibi has been in prison for a year and a half and is awaiting for her death over some remarks she is said to have made about Prophet Mohammad.11