- NEW: Police chief says witnesses weren't pressured to offer false evidence
- Witnesses contradict statements police say they made in the case against the imam
- As imam's case proceeds, the court orders the girl's case stayed
- The girl was accused of burning pages containing Quran texts
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Three witnesses in a tampering case against an imam accused of trying to frame a Pakistani teen on blasphemy charges disowned police statements filed on their behalf Monday, saying they never saw the cleric planting evidence.
The cleric, Khalid Jadoon Chishti, is accused of tampering with evidence and tearing pages out of the Quran in order to bolster the blasphemy case against Rimsha Masih, a Christian teen accused of burning texts from the Muslim holy book as cooking fuel.
Police filed statements from witnesses saying they had seen the imam planting evidence. But at Chishti's bail hearing Monday, three out of the four witnesses contradicted the statements submitted in their names by police, according to the cleric's lawyer, Wajid Ali Gilani.
In their affidavits, the three witnesses said they didn't see Chishti desecrating the Quran's pages or adding them to a bag of ashes allegedly recovered from Rimsha, Gilani said. The cleric's bail hearing has been adjourned until Wednesday, he said.
Chishti denies the allegations.
Islamabad police Chief Bin Yamin said investigators did not pressure the witnesses into recording false statements, which he said were made before a magistrate.
"If they have changed their statements, they are just lying," he said.
Police arrested Rimsha in August after accusations she had violated the country's blasphemy laws. The girl has denied the charges, and a police investigation last month concluded she had been framed by Chishti, who now could face blasphemy charges of his own.
Rimsha will have to wait at least another two weeks to learn her fate after a court ordered a stay of proceedings in her case Monday.
A juvenile court had been due to hear her case, but the Islamabad High Court said the hearing should wait until it has ruled on a petition by her lawyers seeking a dismissal, one of the lawyers said.
Rimsha's lawyers say they are basing their petition to the high court on the police investigation's conclusion that Chishti framed her and the absence of witnesses who saw her burning the pages.
The high court's next hearing on the case will take place October 17, said Abdul Hamid Rana, the leading lawyer for Rimsha.
Rimsha, 14, had been held in an adult jail before she was released on bail in September. A local court transferred her case to the juvenile court last week after the police investigation said she had been framed.
The switch to the juvenile case was a good sign, a rights group says.
"This is a precursor to the case ending, and that is quite unprecedented in the 25-year history of Pakistan's blasphemy laws," said Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch.
The case sparked an international outcry, with critics saying Pakistan's blasphemy laws are used to settle scores and persecute religious minorities.
Blasphemy laws have been a part of life in Pakistan for 25 years; they were first instituted to keep peace between religions.
Actions perceived as insults to Islam provoke fierce reactions in the predominantly Muslim nation, as demonstrated by the recent angry protests in response to an anti-Islam film produced in the United States and made available online.
Investigators said Rimsha's neighbor accused her of burning Quran pages to use as cooking fuel. The neighbor began to shout in protest, drawing a crowd that grew angry.
Some neighbors said the teenager was beaten. Others said she ran back home and locked herself inside. When police arrived, they arrested her.
Rimsha's lawyers said the neighbor wanted to settle a personal score with the girl because the two didn't get along. They said it's likely that he liked the teen and she didn't feel the same.
The lawyers say that no one actually saw Rimsha burning the papers, but that the neighbor went to Chishti with the bags.
According to police, Chishti wasn't certain that simply burning pages with texts from the Quran would be enough to convict Rimsha on blasphemy charges. So, he added two pages from the actual holy book to the bag to bolster the case, they said.
The pursuit of the accusations against the cleric are significant in Pakistan, Hasan said, because "never before has a false accuser been held accountable."
There have been 1,400 blasphemy cases since 1986, according to Human Rights Watch. There are more than 15 cases of people on death row for blasphemy in Pakistan, and 52 have been killed while facing trial for the charge, he said.
Rimsha and her family spoke to CNN last month from an undisclosed location after she was released on bail.
The teen denied that she defiled the Quran. She said she was happy to be with her family, but feared for her life.
"I'm scared," she said by phone. "I'm afraid of anyone who might kill us."
Aid groups in the United States, Italy and Canada have offered the teen and her family a home outside Pakistan, a family representative said.
But no matter how her case pans out, it's unclear what kind of life she might be able to have. She has said she wants to stay in her home country.
No comments:
Post a Comment