ICC Note:
Eighteen months ago Barkat Masih, a Christian convert from Hinduism, was arrested for blasphemy. A security guard, he stopped two Muslim men from illegally entering an office. Enraged, the two men told him they would “make him pay”. After going to the police and accusing him insulting the Prophet Muhammad, Masih was arrested. His acquittal has many human rights activists and Christians hopeful that this is the “beginning of change” for such cases and that the blasphemy law will soon be changed.
By Jibran Khan
01/30/2013 Pakistan (AN) – After the young girl Rimsha Masih, the Pakistani Christian community can celebrate the acquittal on appeal of a man sentenced to death – without evidence and on the basis of trumped-up charges – for blasphemy. The verdict may give new vigor and hope the other victims of the “black law”, including the 46-year-old mother of five, Asia Bibi, still waiting for their appeal hearings to begin. Many, in fact, are calling for a “revision” of the law, which is often used to settle personal disputes and conflicts and which caused the brutal murders of Catholic Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in 2011.
Barkat Masih, 56, was born to a Hindu family but converted to Christianity.  A native of the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab province, he was involved (although innocent) in a case of blasphemy on October 1, 2011, and was sentence in the first instance to the death penalty.
Local sources said that the man, a security guard by profession, got caught up in a workers’ dispute, who wanted to illegally occupy a portion of land. He prevented them from entering an office, where property documents were stored. At his refusal, two Muslim workers – Muhammad Saleem and Muhammad Shoaib – insulted and threatened him, and promised to “make him pay.”
They reported him to police, who arrested him on charges of having insulted the Prophet Muhammad, a crime that can lead to the death penalty under Article 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code. However, after spending 18 months in prison on 28 January, Judge Javed Ahmed of Bahawalpur High Court upheld the appeal and acquitted the accused because the crime does not exist.
…
[Full Story]