The Superior Court of Lahore (LHC) will listen to an appeal against the death sentence of former university professor Junaid Hafeez on March 19, arose on Saturday.
Hafeez, former visiting professor of the Department of English Literature of the Bahauddin Zakariya (BZU) University, was sentenced to death by a Fullan district and a session court on December 21, 2019 for Blasphemia positions.
The academic was reserved for blasphemy charges and arrested by the police on March 13, 2013. The trial of the case began in 2014.
According to a list of causes issued by the LHC, a division bank headed by Judge Shehram Sarwar and including Judge Sardar Akbar Ali will assume the criminal appeal on March 19 (Wednesday).
According to Amnesty International, Hafeez, who was also in the process of obtaining a postgraduate degree in English literature, was accused of blasphemy for Facebook loads.
The court had found guilty of all charges and delivered to 10 years in prison under section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts destined to outrak religious feelings of any kind by insulting their religion or religious beliefs); Term of life under section 295-B (polluting, etc. of the Sacred Koran) and the death sentence under section 295-C (use of derogatory comments, etc., with respect to the Holy Prophet) of the Pakistan Criminal Code (PPC).
In addition to the death sentence, the additional judge of the district and the Kashif Qayyum sessions had also imposed RS0.5 million fines and RS0.1M under sections 295-C and 295-A of the PPC, respectively. In case of non -compliance, Hafeez would have to undergo an additional prison of one year.
He was also sentenced to life imprisonment under section 295-B, and 10 years in rigorous prison and a fine of RS100,000 under section 295-A of the PPC. All sentences would be executed consecutively, according to the court.
The Pakistan Human Rights Commission had said that it was dismayed by the verdict delivered to the academic.
Hafeez had been housed in the high security room number 2 of the new central prison fine, from when his punishment was announced.
A month before the sentence was issued, the professor’s parents had appealed to the then boss of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa for justice for their child, fearing for their mental and physical health. They had declared that Hafeez had been languishing in solitary confinement since 2013 for false blasphemy charges.
At least seven judges were transferred through the case of Hafeez. Up to 15 witnesses of the Prosecutor’s Office registered their statements against Hafeez, while another 11 were not called after being declared irrelevant.
The trial was transferred to the Central Prison of F fine in April 2014 by the Punjab Department of Interior due to security concerns.
Hafeez’s previous lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in May 2014 in his office. The previous month, the HRCP had expressed serious concerns when the death threats extended to Rehman, also the Coordinator of the Special Task Force of the Commission.
In December 2014, another lawyer who represents Hafeez also received a threat letter from the militant group of the Islamic State, warning him to withdraw from the case.
