ICC Note:
Four years have passed since Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s sole Christian cabinet minister, was assassinated and the Christian’s murderers have still to be brought to justice. Bhatti, a strong advocate for Pakistan’s Christian community, was murdered in 2011 for his public opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy law and to the sentencing of Christian mother, Asia Bibi, under that same law. Experts have claimed that threats and security pressures have kept the trial moving at a snail’s pace. Will there ever be justice for Shahbaz Bhatti?
3/10/2015 Pakistan (One News Now) – It’s been four years since Pakistan’s sole Christian cabinet minister was assassinated. There are complaints that justice has yet to be served as the murder trial is moving at a snail’s pace.
He was the federal minister of minority affairs in Pakistan, but Shahbaz Bhatti was killed in 2011 for his public opposition to Pakistan blasphemy laws and for his public support for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death.
That’s according to William Stark of International Christian Concern.
“The perpetrators behind the assassination were the Pakistani Taliban,” says Stark, “and since the murder they’ve been threatening the judges, they’ve been threatening the lawyers.”
They have even threatened Paul Bhatti, who is Shahbaz’s brother and who had to flee Pakistan after pushing for the case to go to court.
Stark says ICC is concerned over the lack of results in the past four years – as if the deaths of Christians don’t matter, including a prominent figure like Shahbaz.
The ICC spokesman says the late minority affairs minister was a “real hero” for minorities in Pakistan.
“And to allow his killers to continue to go unpunished is something that’s just not acceptable,” he tells OneNewsNow.
Stark notes that it’s hard to put pressure on a country like Pakistan considering all the other security issues that are taking place there.
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