I'm Mohammad Asghar!!!!!!!!!!!! : Pakistan court sentences British man to death for claiming to be prophet of Islam .Isn't EVERYONE?

I'm Mohammad Asghar!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pakistan court sentences British man to death for claiming to be prophet of Islam

ANW 

January 25,2014

A court in Pakistan has sentenced a British man to death for blasphemy for claiming to be a prophet of Islam.

Mohammad Asghar, a British national of Pakistani origin, was arrested in 2010 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, for writing letters claiming to be a prophet, police said.

The special court inside Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail, where Asghar is being held, rejected defence claims that the 65-year-old has mental health problems.

"Asghar claimed to be a prophet even inside the court. He confessed it in front of the judge," Javed Gul, a government prosecutor said.

"Asghar used to write it even on his visiting card."

Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 per cent of the population is Muslim, and insulting the Prophet Mohammed can carry the death penalty.

But the country has had a de facto moratorium on civilian hangings since 2008.

Only one person has been executed since then - a soldier convicted by court martial.

In 2006, the then-president Pervez Musharraf commuted the death sentence on a British man convicted of murder after appeals from former UK prime minister Tony Blair and Prince Charles.

Asghar also ordered to pay fine

Mr Gul says the court also ordered Asghar to pay a fine of $11,480.

A medical board examined Asghar after defence lawyers said he was suffering from some mental disorder, but Mr Gul said they "declared him as a normal person".

"Asghar was failed to produce even a single witness in his favour," Mr Gul said.

A police official in Sadiq Abad neighbourhood of Rawalpindi, where Asghar was arrested, confirmed the death sentence.

Pakistan's tough blasphemy laws have attracted criticism from rights groups, who say they are frequently abused to settle personal scores.

In 2012, Rimsha Masih, a young Christian girl, was arrested for alleged blasphemy in Islamabad.

The case provoked international concern because of her age, estimated at 14, and because she was variously described as "uneducated" or suffering from Down's syndrome.

The charges against here were eventually thrown out and last June she fled to Canada with her family.

Even unproven allegations of blasphemy can provoke a violent public response.

There have been several cases where mobs have attacked mentally ill people who have made supposedly blasphemous claims.

AFP