Pak SC absolves man after 9 yrs of imprisonment

A Pakistani man, accused of blasphemy, has been absolved of the charges against him after having spent over nine years in jail.

Pakistan's Supreme Court absolved the 58-year-old of the blasphemy charges for want of evidence, reported the Dawn.

The star witness in the case was a person suffering from hearing and speech impairment and, therefore, could not even be termed a witness under the Evidence Act, argued the defence counsel.

After hearing the arguments, a Supreme Court bench absolved the accused of the charges with the observation that the person, who misleadingly alleged others of desecration of the Holy Quran, in fact committed blasphemy.

The man was arrested for allegedly desecrating pages of the Holy Quran in a mosque in 2008.

The man was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009.

The Lahore High Court upheld the sentence in 2014. Pakistan's Supreme Court took up the case the same year and provided the accused a state counsel, the report said.