Senior Scottish ministers plea for release of Pakistani Christian woman

Senior ministers in the Church of Scotland are appealing to the Pakistani government to release a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

The Very Rev Dr Andrew McLellan, Convener of the World Mission Council of the Church of Scotland, and the Rev Ian Galloway, Convener of the Kirk’s Church and Society Council, made the appeal in a joint letter to the Pakistani High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan.

They asked him to urge his government to release and pardon Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to hang by a court on November 8.

Bibi was found guilty of committing blasphemy in a dispute with Muslim colleagues over the merits of their faith last year. She denies the charges.

In addition to her release, the Church ministers asked that the Pakistan government ensure protection for Bibi and her family from anyone who might seek to take the law into their own hands.

They reiterated the Church of Scotland's call for the blasphemy law to be repealed. The Church maintains that the blasphemy law is being misused to intimidate and terrorise minority faith communities in Pakistan and to settle personal scores and vendettas.

Dr McLellan and Mr Galloway said in their letter that the blasphemy law goes against the teachings of Islam and is contrary to the culture of the majority of the Pakistani people.

Bibi has already spent the last year and a half in prison since the charges were first brought against her.

The Pakistani government has come under intense international pressure to release her but was last week barred from pardoning her by the High Court on the grounds that her case is still pending.