UNITED NATIONS – The UN human rights experts condemned on Friday the deathsentence of Junaid Hafeez, a Pakistani university teacher, charged withblasphemy, calling the ruling “a travesty of justice”.
Hafeez, 33, a lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, wassentenced to death – despite last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling inwhich Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi was tried and condemned to hang forblasphemy but was later acquitted, according to a press release issued atUN Headquarters in New York.
“The Supreme Court ruling in the Asia Bibi case should have set a precedentfor lower courts to dismiss any blasphemy case that has not been provedbeyond reasonable doubt,” the experts said.
Moreover, they raised concerns in an urgent appeal to the Government overthe legal merits of the case, according to the press release “In the lightof this ruling, the guilty verdict against Mr. Hafeez is a travesty ofjustice, and we condemn the death sentence imposed on him”, spelled out theexperts.
“We urge Pakistan’s superior courts to promptly hear his appeal, overturnthe death sentence and acquit him.”
International law permits the death penalty only in exceptionalcircumstances, and requires incontrovertible evidence of intentionalmurder, the experts noted.
“The death sentence imposed on Mr. Hafeez has no basis in either law orevidence, and therefore contravenes international law”, they continued,adding that “carrying out the sentence would amount to an arbitrarykilling,” they said.
They expressed their serious concern that blasphemy charges are still beingbrought against people “legitimately exercising their rights to freedom ofthought, conscience, religion and expression”.
Hafeez was arrested on 13 March 2013 and charged for allegedly makingblasphemous remarks during lectures and on his Facebook account, the pressrelease pointed out.
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He has been in solitary confinement since his trial began in 2014,seriously affecting his mental and physical health. The death sentence wasimposed by a district and sessions court in Multan on 21 December 2019.
“Prolonged solitary confinement may well amount to torture, or other cruel,inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” the experts said.
Hafeez’s case has gone through lengthy trials in Multan, with theprosecution failing to provide convincing evidence of his guilt, theypointed out, while also noting that “some documentary evidence submitted tothe court was never subjected to independent forensic review despiteallegations it had been fabricated, and that a lawyer representing Mr.Hafeez in 2014, Rashid Rehman, was murdered and the killers have not beenbrought to justice”.
“There seems to be a climate of fear among members of the judiciaryhandling this case, which may explain why at least seven judges weretransferred during this lengthy trial”, the UN experts concluded.
The independent experts are: the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religionor belief; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitraryexecutions; Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman orDegrading Treatment or Punishment; and members of the UN Working Group onArbitrary Detention.
Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by theGeneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on aspecific human rights theme or a country situation.
