Death penalty of Christian Ehsan Shan: Will the EU Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion defend his cause in Islamabad?

Christian organizations and human rights activists in Pakistan and in Brussels hope that the EU diplomat will raise the issue of the young Christian Ehsan Shan sentenced to death on 1 July last by the Anti-Terrorism Court in Sahiwal for alleged blasphemy, writes Willy Fautre, Human Rights Without Frontiers. He had been charged for reposting on his TikTok account an image of a damaged text of the Qu’ran, an incident which led to a huge anti-Christian pogrom in Jaranwala on 16 August 2023. According to the police, the young man was involved in the alleged desecration but by sharing it, it was made viral on the Internet.As per police and local sources, the violence erupted after some locals alleged that several desecrated pages of the Holy Quran were found near a house at Cinema Chowk in Jaranwala, where two Christian brothers resided. Ehsan Shan was additionally sentenced under numerous other articles of the Pakistan Penal Code, to 22 years’ “rigorous imprisonment” and fined 1 million Pakistan Rupees (3350 EUR). It is not unusual that people sentenced to death on blasphemy charges also get a prison sentence. According to representatives of the local Christian community, the young man is “just a scapegoat” while those who attacked and burned churches and Christian homes go unpunished. About anti-Christian pogroms, blasphemy issues and ‘justice’On 16 August 2023, a violent mob destroyed and set fire to over 90 Christian homes and about 26 churches in the Christian quarter of Jaranwala (Punjab). Last February, Pakistan’s Supreme Court had rejected the prosecution’s report on the Jaranwala mass violence, calling it “extremely flawed” as it lacked relevant information and details about the arrests.The lack of appropriate judicial action in such cases is regularly called into question and criticized both in Pakistan and by international organizations, including the European Parliament. A recent case is a lynching in Sargodha (May 2024), the accused of violence were released on bail. In recent days (June 2024), a violent mob killed a Muslim man, a tourist accused of insulting the Koran in the mountain town of Madyan in the Swat district of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “Such incidents,” said Catholic lawyer Khalil Tahir Sandhu, Senator and Minister for Human Rights in Punjab province, “underline the growing trend of mob violence in Pakistan, which is increasing the sense of insecurity in society.” The case has reignited the debate on the blasphemy law and its impact, and has drawn renewed attention to the urgent need for legal reform. The law is often misused when it comes to personal disputes.There are numerous cases of Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Ahmadis being wrongly accused and imprisoned, while simple accusations can lead to mass violence and arbitrary executions. According to the Database of religious prisoners of conscience of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, over 50 members of religious minorities are currently languishing in prison, some of them being on death row on blasphemy charges.Pakistani Christians and other minorities in Pakistan as well as the international human rights community hope that the EU Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief will use his mission to raise the issues of blasphemy, mob violence and the lack of appropriate judicial action and will report to the European Parliament.

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