Court keeps Pakistani Down girl in jail on ‘blasphemy’

06 Sep 2012

By The Record

A family rides past the locked house of Rimsha Masih, a Pakistani Christian girl accused of blasphemy, in Islamabad.

A Pakistani court considering the case of a Christian girl allegedly found with burned pages of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, adjourned on August 30 without granting bail.

The girl, Rimsha Masih, 11, who has Down syndrome, was charged under the country’s strict blasphemy law and has been held since August 18.

Chances for her release received a boost on August 29 when district court Judge Jawad Hasan confirmed she was a minor suffering from a mental disability, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.

Medical tests had determined Rimsha was about 14 years old.

Under Pakistani law, children under 15 must be tried in a juvenile court, while those under 12 are deemed to be incapable of taking responsibility for their own actions and cannot be found guilty.

Although medical examinations presented to the court countered claims by the girl’s parents that she is only 11, her lawyer, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, said he was confident the court would release her during the August 30 hearing.

“The proof of her illiteracy, being underage and mental illness increase the prospects for her freedom,” he said. “All facts and figures support her.”

However, the court did not grant bail and continued the hearing until September 1 to get further clarification of the medical tests, the Associated Press reported.

International news agencies reported this week that Pakistani police say they are investigating whether a Muslim cleric who allegedly tried to frame Rimsha for blasphemy should be charged with insulting Islam himself.

Police officer Munir Jafferi says officials registered the blasphemy case against Khalid Chisti on Monday.

Police arrested Chisti on Saturday after a member of the cleric’s mosque accused him of stashing pages of a Koran in Rimsha’s bag to make it seem like she burned the Islamic holy book.

Chaudhry told media his client will remain in prison until at least Friday after her bail hearing was delayed for the second time Monday.

Last year, two officials were killed for expressing opposition to Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws. - CNS