Lawyer Malook Returning to Pakistan for Blasphemy Case

Lawyer Malook Returning to Pakistan for Blasphemy Case

A Pakistani lawyer who fled to the Netherlands after defending a Christian against blasphemy charges is returning to Pakistan, VOA news reports.

Saiful Malook has announced he will return to attend the Jan. 29 Supreme Court hearing of his client, Asia Bibi. Tuesday’s proceedings will decide an appeal against Bibi’s acquittal, which was issued in October after she had spent years in prison under a death sentence.

Malook left the country last year when violence broke out following Bibi’s acquittal and he received death threats.

FILE - Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi is seen after a meeting with the governor of Punjab province at a jail in Sheikhupura, Pakistan.
FILE – Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi is seen after a meeting with the governor of Punjab province at a jail in Sheikhupura, Pakistan.

Bibi, a Christian, was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 after a disagreement with her neighbors in which she was accused of insulting Islam. She was sentenced to death and spent more than seven years in prison before the Supreme Court acquitted her last year.