Fighting To Save Qaisar: ACLJ Asks Pakistan’s Supreme Court To Review His Death Sentence

Since enacting blasphemy laws in the 1980s, thousands of Pakistanis have been falsely accused of committing blasphemy against Islam. Many have been killed by angry mobs, hundreds are still serving long sentences in prison (including life imprisonment), and many have been issued death sentences. Fortunately, to date, the Government of Pakistan has never carried out an execution. And historically, convictions have either been overturned on appeal or commuted to lesser punishment by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. But that precedent has now been broken.

Through our ACLJ affiliate, the Organization for Legal Aid (OLA) in Pakistan, we represent Qaisar Ayub and his younger brother, Amoon Ayub, two Christian men who were falsely accused of committing blasphemy. As we previously reported, the court correctly acquitted Amoon of all charges, but egregiously upheld Qaisar’s conviction and death sentence – the first in Pakistan’s history.

Qaisar and Amoon were arrested and charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws in 2014 and 2015 for allegedly creating a blog on WordPress that published material insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. In 2018, both were sentenced to death by hanging, and their convictions were upheld by the Lahore High Court in 2022. On July 6, the Supreme Court finally heard the arguments, and on October 7 announced its decision upholding Qaisar’s conviction and death sentence while acquitting Amoon. (Amoon is now out of prison and has been moved to a safe location.)

The fight to save Qaisar’s life is far from over.

In addition to the urgent submission we recently filed with the Special Procedures with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and briefing the office of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, we have filed a review petition before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Under Article 188 of the Constitution of Pakistan, the Supreme Court has the power to review its own decisions. A larger judicial panel will now review Qaisar’s conviction.

In our review petition, we identify multiple serious legal errors in the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Qaisar’s conviction. These include misreading and failing to consider critical evidence, relying on evidence without independent corroboration, and failing to extend the benefit of the doubt to the accused.

Consider just one example.

Prosecution Witness No. 7, Mehmood-Ul-Hassan, Deputy Director of the Cyber Crimes Department, prepared the forensic report concerning the alleged blog. Yet, during cross-examination, he admitted: “I have not visited the www.ucopak.wordpress.com. The police had not asked me to search the e-mail account where from the blog www.ucopak.wordpress.com had been created nor I did so while preparing report Exh.PO [the forensic report].”

The prosecution’s own forensic expert admitted that he never visited the alleged blog or investigated the email account used to create it. Yet the Supreme Court disregarded this critical testimony. This evidence alone raises fundamental questions about whether the prosecution ever established that Qaisar was responsible for the blog.

There is more.

The prosecution’s own record shows that investigators formally contacted WordPress seeking to identify the person who created the allegedly offensive blog. WordPress never responded.

In other words, investigators never obtained independent evidence from the platform identifying Qaisar as the person responsible.

Despite this critical evidentiary gap, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence.

I was recently in Pakistan assisting Amoon as he transitions to becoming a free man. I also spoke with Qaisar on the phone. He is thankful for his brother’s acquittal and, despite the Court’s devastating decision for him, is in good spirits. He is thankful to the Lord even in this time of adversity and understands that everything will happen in God’s timing. He asked me to thank everyone who has been praying for him.

At the same time, he is worried for his wife, son, and two daughters. I was also able to meet his son, encourage him, and provide an update on the efforts being made for his father.

We will continue to update you as the case progresses and ask you to continue to pray for Qaisar and his family.

Take action with us. Sign our petition to save Qaisar: Save Christian Brother From Execution.