A 22-year-old student has been handed a death sentence by a local court on charges of blasphemy, stemming from alleged WhatsApp messages, the foreign media reported on Saturday.
The court asserted that the individual, whose identity remains undisclosed, had shared blasphemous pictures and videos with the purported intention of offending the religious sentiments of Muslims.
The case, originally filed in 2022 by the cybercrime unit of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Lahore, has taken a significant turn with this recent ruling.
A 17-year-old co-defendant, implicated in the same case, has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Both individuals have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
According to the plaintiff’s claims, he received the alleged blasphemous content from three different mobile phone numbers. The FIA conducted an examination of the plaintiff’s phone, confirming the receipt of what they deemed as “obscene material.”
In their defense, the legal representatives of the accused students argued that their clients had fallen victim to a fabricated case, asserting that they were ensnared in a false narrative.
The father of the condemned 22-year-old revealed to the media that he was in the process of filing an appeal with the Lahore High Court to contest the death sentence.
The decision to sentence the 17-year-old defendant to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty was reportedly influenced by his status as a minor, as stipulated by the court.
