World Watch Monitor | Oct. 19, 2018
Asia Bibi’s final appeal against her execution in the Supreme Court of Pakistan went on for more than two hours. Below, World Watch Monitor provides details of what was said.
Asia Bibi’s appeal hearing on 8 October took place before a three-member bench – Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel – who calmly heard arguments from both sides and raised several probing questions to ascertain the truth.
First, Saif-ul-Malook, the counsel for Asia Bibi, presented his arguments that there was insufficient evidence and the case was filed out of malice. Then the counsel for the complainant, Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, claimed “disrespecting” Islam was part of the Christian faith and that Asia Bibi was simply following in a centuries-old tradition of hate speech against Islam and its prophet by Christians, which, he said, began in Muslim Spain.