Save Christian Boy from Execution

He was a 16-year-old Christian boy when he was falsely accused; now he’s been sentenced to death for his faith.

It all began with a religious conversation that Shazad did not initiate

Shahzad was at work when a Muslim co-worker, Jalali, started a religious conversation, telling Shahzad about Muslim Prophets and asking him questions about the Christian Prophets. Shahzad responded that he did not know much about religion, but would ask his father. When Jalali told Shahzad about the Prophet Muhammad, Shahzad told Jalali that his father has a friend named Ali who makes derogatory remarks whenever he hears peoples’ names that have Muhammad in it.

His coworker became upset. He called Shahzad, his father, and his father’s friend names and left. Later that evening, Shahzad was summoned to a mobile phone shop located across the hospital where dozens of men from a Muslim sectarian group, Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Islam (TTIP) were present. The group’s name literally means “movement to protect Islam.” These men were angry at Shahzad. They asked Shahzad what he said to Jalali at the hospital. Scared for his life, Shahzad told them that he had told Jalali that his father’s friend, Ali, uses derogatory words when he hears names that have Muhammad in it.

Instead of accusing Ali, the group of men took Shahzad to a nearby madrassah (an Islamic religious school) and handed him over to the police. The police then filed a blasphemy case against Shahzad.

A police investigation found no evidence of blasphemy, but the judge was pressured to render a guilty verdict

Even though the police investigation did not find any evidence of blasphemy in Shahzad’s conversation, the prosecution still brought charges and the case went to trial. During the trial, all the witnesses stated that “Jalali began the religious conversation” and that Shahzad only stated that “his father has a friend named Ali, who uses derogatory remarks in the respect of [the] Holy Prophet.”

Most importantly, the Superintendent of Police (SP) who investigated the case testified in court that, “during my investigation, I did not declare Shahzad Masih guilty.” He further testified that Jalali (the accuser) belongs to a religious sectarian group (TTIP). He is the one who started the religious conversation. The SP noted that Shahzad was immature and underage and had no knowledge of his or other religions (as he was a minor at the time of the alleged incident). The SP also stated that an eyewitness did not think that Shahzad made any derogatory remarks against the Prophet.

This was the prosecution’s entire evidence. What Shahzad said does not constitute blasphemy.

Extremists threatened to take matters into their own hands if the judge didn’t convict Shazhad

Several Islamic clerics and members of the TTIP attended court hearings in order to threaten the judge. And, even before the judge announced the decision, the leader of the group, Qari Saqib Jalali, did a photoshoot in the courthouse and left, as if he knew the decision beforehand. Five years ago, when Shahzad was arrested, the same Qari Saqib Jalali threatened on social media that if the court didn’t punish Shahzad, the TTIP members would kill him with their own hands. His threats worked.

After over five years of court hearings, Judge Amir Mukhtar Gondal sentenced Shahzad to death. Before announcing the decision, the judge ordered that the courtroom and the entire courthouse compound be evacuated. He announced the decision only in front of Shahzad and the complainant.

Pakistani trial courts are known to decide blasphemy cases under pressure from angry Muslim mobs. This is exactly what happened here. An innocent man was sentenced to death for something that does not even constitute a crime.

We’re fighting this miscarriage of justice, but we need your help

We immediately mobilized our legal team on the ground in Pakistan to represent Shahzad and appeal his case. We must overturn this vile miscarriage of justice. This is the ultimate abominable human rights violation, and we’ll take this case all the way to Pakistan’s Supreme Court.

We also lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD). The WGAD hears complaints and determines whether the person’s detention is arbitrary, i.e., against the law. The WGAD looks at the legality of the detention under international human rights treaties.

Our complaint lists a host of provisions of international human rights law that Pakistan violated by arresting, falsely charging, prosecuting, and sentencing Shahzad to death. In particular, we argued that the prosecution and the courts violated, among other things, Shahzad’s rights to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, his right to a fair trial, and equal treatment under the law.

A record of success

We’ve helped free Christians – like Christian mom Asia Bibi who was charged under the same barbaric law – from death row in Pakistan before, but we can’t do it without YOU.

We need your help

We request prayer for Shahzad, his family, and our legal teams in Pakistan and the U.S. who are working on this case.

We need your signature on this petition to help save this Christian’s life.

And, we need your donations to help us continue fighting a drawn out legal battle. Even a simple $5 donation goes a long way toward keeping us in the fight for as long as it takes.