Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in a blasphemy case, has arrived in Canada, CNN quoted her lawyer Saif Ul Malook as saying on Wednesday.
Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan had earlier claimed that Asia Bibi’s children were already in Canada. It was also speculated that she would seek asylum in either North America or Europe. In November, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had said that his government was in talks with Pakistan about helping Bibi, Reuters reported.
Under Pakistan’s penal code, the offense of blasphemy is punishable by death or life imprisonment. However, the country’s Supreme Court acquitted her on October 31, resulting in widespread protests across the country. Major highways and roads in many parts of the country were blocked by protestors for several days. Cellphone signals were suspended in several areas of Lahore. The Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, one of the most vocal groups that led the protests, even called for a mutiny against the Army’s top brass.
The case
Bibi, a farm worker and a mother of four, was convicted in 2010 for insulting Prophet Muhammad during an argument with a group of women in her neighbourhood near Lahore. The women had said they could no longer use a cup from which Bibi had drunk water because she was Christian. Bibi later acknowledged she had used “hot words” during the argument but insisted that she had never said anything blasphemous.
A trial court sentenced her to death in 2010. She moved the Supreme Court against a 2014 Lahore High Court order that upheld the trial court’s decision. Her time in prison was mostly spent in solitary confinement.
In 2011, Salman Taseer, who was then the governor of Punjab province, was assassinated by a bodyguard in Islamabad for expressing support for Bibi.
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