Christian tortured in prison to 'confess' to blasphemy
Imran Rehman has been in prison for two months for a complaint against him regarding a post he made on WhatsApp. His wife: 'Since his arrest, my daughter cannot go to school'. Increasingly in Pakistan, social networks are being used to fabricate false accusations of blasphemy against families belonging to religious minorities.
Lahore (AsiaNews) - Imran Rehman, a 32-year-old Christian father of two girls, was tortured in the Lahore prison where he has been held for two months on charges of posting blasphemous material on a WhatsApp group.
Imran's mother, Nargis Bibi, who visited him in recent days, says her son reported being subjected to violence in order to extract a confession. He is also under severe mental pressure being locked up in a room in the prison where four out of six prisoners suffer from mental retardation.
A complaint was filed against Imran on 14 September and he was immediately arrested by the computer crimes department of the Federal Investigation Agency. Imran's wife, Komal Mushtaq, stated that Imran is innocent and is falsely accused of blasphemy.
"Since his arrest," she said, "my four-year-old daughter has not been able to attend school and feeding my two-year-old daughter has become difficult because he was the only one who brought home bread.
Lawyer Abdul Hameed Rana said that the case against Rehman is a blatant violation of the rules, as one cannot register a case against a person without issuing a notice and without involving the accused in the investigation, allowing him to defend himself.
Moreover, as human rights activist Ashiknaz Khokhar points out, the digital media and social networks in Pakistan have increasingly become a source for false accusations of blasphemy targeting religious minorities. The blasphemy laws and the Electronic Crimes Prevention Act of 2016 are being misused to restrict freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion, as the cases of Shagufta Kiran and Zafar Bhatti, in addition to Imran Rehman, show.
The latter, for example, is the longest-serving convicted blasphemy offender: he has been in prison since July 2012 and was sentenced to death in January 2022. The charges - based on unproven elements - have also completely ruined the lives of the family members of the accused.
Joseph Jansen, president of Voice for Justice, commented that the current blasphemy laws do not guarantee a fair trial and religious freedom: the accuser enjoys impunity despite presenting false evidence and testimony. They are incompatible with international human rights standards. Coupled to this is the fact that acts of mob violence under the pretext of blasphemy accusations are justified by citing the weakness of the judicial system as a reason.
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