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| Photo: Guardian/Farooq Naeem/AFP/Getty |
Source/Credit: Guardian | UK
By Declan Walsh | March 16, 2011
Lawyer says Qamar David was in good health and death 'was not natural'
A Christian man accused of blasphemy has died in a Pakistani jail, reviving fears for the safety of minorities targeted under the country's blasphemy laws.
Authorities at the Karachi jail said Qamar David, 55, who was sentenced to life imprisonment last year for allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammad, died of a heart attack on Tuesday.
But David's lawyer said his client had been in good health and raised the possibility of murder. "This is not a natural death," Aslam Chaudhry said.
"He was fine the last time I saw him. He never informed me of any heart condition or blood pressure. This is a false story of the prison authorities."
A senior prison official, Ghulam Qadir Thebo, said David had died after complaining of chest pain. He said prison doctors had ruled out murder and a postmortem would be carried out in the presence of family members.
Campaigners said David's death underscored the urgent need to reform the blasphemy laws. Although no one accused of blasphemy has been executed, several dozen prisoners have been murdered in prisons and courthouses.
Andrew Johnston, of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said David's family had suffered for nine years from the consequences of a blasphemy accusation that was likely to have been dismissed by the high court in time. "It is yet another tragic example of lives needlessly destroyed ... and the inability of the government, court system and prisons to prevent this," he said. Johnston called for an independent investigation into the cause of David's death.
The death comes two weeks after gunmen shot dead Pakistan's minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, and just over two months after the Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer was assassinated in similar circumstances.
Both politicians had spoken out for reform of the blasphemy laws, which campaigners say are frequently used to persecute minorities such as Christians, or to settle scores among Muslims.
Mumtaz Qadri, a police officer who is on trial at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi for Taseer's murder, has been hailed as a hero by some conservatives. Hundreds of people, most of them Muslims, have been charged with blasphemy since it was made a capital offence under the military dictator General Zia ul Haq in 1986. The most famous recent case involved Aasia Bibi, a Christian farm worker who was sentenced to death last November after a row in her village. Taseer and Bhatti had championed her case.
David was arrested in 2006 after allegations that he insulted the name of the prophet Muhammad. His lawyer said the charges were brought by a business rival and his trial was conducted under intense pressure from local clerics.
After years in jail on remand, David was convicted in a Karachi court in February 2010. He was sentenced to life and had started the appeal process. Both he and his lawyer received frequent death threats during the trial.
"Many times we have been threatened, including travelling from the airport to the courthouse," said Chaudhry. "Christians in blasphemy cases are treated very differently here."
Among those accused of blasphemy this year are a 17-year-old student who was turned in by an education board official correcting his exam sheet.
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