By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
FAISALABAD, PAKISTAN (Worthy News) – A Christian man sentenced to death for blasphemy against Islam in the eastern Pakistani town of Jaranwala will appeal the verdict, Worthy News learned Easter Monday.
The 36-year Pervaiz, also known as Kodu Masih, was convicted on Good Friday, April 18, after he allegedly desecrated the Koran, deemed a holy book by Muslims, said Tahir Bashir, a Christian lawyer involved in the case.
“I did his case in the Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) in the city of Faisalabad [which sentenced him to death],” Bashir told Worthy News. “I have filed an appeal in the High Court against the verdict of ATC Faisalabad,” he added.
“This verdict is yet another chapter in the ongoing persecution faced by the followers of Jesus Christ,” in Pakistan, a mainly Muslim nation, Bashir stressed.
He also received a fine of roughly $12,500 in local currency, sources said.
The ATC acquitted the other two accused, Daud William Masih and Shahid Aftab, also known as Boby Masih, giving them “the benefit of the doubt,” Christian trial observers noted. “The Christian community is going through a difficult time,” explained lawyer Bashir, who recently survived an assassination attempt
“Yet, I find solace in the thought that just as the heavy stone was rolled away from the tomb of Jesus Christ, so too will the heavy stones of injustice and persecution be lifted from the lives of people like Pervaiz,” he stressed.
ATTACKING CHRISTIANS
The claims of blasphemy, which the convicted Christian man denies, fueled attacks on a Christian neighborhood of Jaranwala in 2023 in which numerous houses and churches were torched and thousands of people forced to flee their homes.
Pakistan ranks 8th on the annual World Watch List of 50 nations, where advocacy group Open Doors says Christians face the most persecution for their faith in Christ.
Blasphemy against Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan, and several people, including Christians, have been languishing for years on death row.
While no one has been executed yet by the state, several suspects have been lynched to death by outraged mobs, often before they could face a court.
In the southern city of Karachi on Friday, a mob of hundreds of people beat an Ahmadi owner of a car workshop to death with bricks and sticks, Worthy News reported earlier. The victim, Laeeq Cheema, 46, was reportedly filming supporters of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party “when the mob started beating him and killed him,” police announced.
TLP is known as a far-right Islamist political party known for its violent protests against any changes to the blasphemy law in Pakistan or those deemed dangerous to its teachings, including even some Muslims.
Ahmadis are a minority group that has faced attacks in Pakistan on accusations of being heretical and involved in blasphemy by hardline Muslims.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s newly announced 15% global import tariff is expected to take effect sometime this week as the administration moves to rebuild its tariff framework after a recent Supreme Court ruling struck down part of the president’s trade agenda.
President Donald Trump met Wednesday with leaders of major technology companies at the White House as they formally backed a new initiative designed to prevent the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers from driving up electricity prices for American consumers.
Stocks rebounded after a report that Iran made indirect contact with the United States to negotiate an end to the war in the Middle East, boosting hopes that the conflict could be short-lived.
An American submarine has destroyed an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka in the “first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II,” killing scores of people, the U.S. defense secretary confirmed Wednesday.
Israel and the United States are increasingly targeting Iran’s internal security apparatus as part of their ongoing military campaign, striking organizations responsible for suppressing protests and maintaining the Islamic Republic’s grip on power.
The United States says it has struck nearly 2,000 targets across Iran and destroyed at least 17 Iranian naval vessels, including a submarine, as part of the widening military campaign known as Operation Epic Fury, launched together with Israel against the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts has reportedly chosen Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s next supreme leader amid the escalating war involving Iran, Israel and the United States.