Sialkot (AsiaNews) – This morning Sialkot District Court condemned to death Shafeeq Latif, a Muslim accused of blasphemy. Even if the Supreme Court overrules the sentence he will still face life in prison and a fine of half a million rupee (about 5 thousand euro).

Judge Suhaib Ahmad Roomi, told journalists that the sentence “based on Islamic laws particularly article 295, comma b and c, of the Pakistani Penal code”.  The former refers to offence of the Koran, punishable with life in prison, the latter sets out death or life in prison for offence of the prophet Mohammad.  Immediately after the verdict, banners and posters welcoming the sentence appeared throughout Sialkot.

Fr Aftab James Paul, director diocesan commission for interfaith dialogue in Faisalabad told AsiaNews :“We strongly condemn the death sentence of Shafeeq Latif. He said that it has been proved that many dishonest people had been continuously using this law for their vested interests and no faith including Muslims has exception”.

The brutal killing of a young Hindu last May coupled with this morning’s death sentence, “has proved that this law is not a problem for any single segment of the society instead this law has grabbed the whole society. So as we demanded ‘total repeal’ of blasphemy laws”.

According to data collected by the Pakistani Catholic Church’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), at least 25 persons have been killed arbitrarily after being accused of blasphemy and 892 were accused from 1986 to 2007. While the majority victims of blasphemy laws were Muslims, houses and places of worship of minorities were destroyed under the allegations and seven were murdered.