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
Thousands of Hungarians rallied outside Budapest’s Sándor Palace on Thursday in protest against Prime Minister Péter Magyar, whom they accuse of undermining democracy through planned constitutional changes that would pave the way for removing President Tamás Sulyok from office.
Israel has provided the United States with new intelligence indicating that Iran may be developing a fresh plan to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter cited by The Wall Street Journal.
President Donald Trump is pressing congressional Republicans to move quickly on two of his biggest unfinished priorities: a $350 billion defense funding package and a sweeping nationwide voter ID mandate.
Tens of thousands of Christians have been killed in Nigeria over the past six years, many in attacks blamed on radicalized Fulani militant groups, according to a new report by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa.
President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is preparing pilot “humanitarian zones” in southern Gaza aimed at sheltering vetted Palestinian civilians outside Hamas control, according to a source familiar with the planning.
President Donald Trump closed a tense NATO summit Wednesday by hailing what he called “tremendous unity” inside the alliance, even after delivering blunt warnings to Spain, renewing his push for U.S. control of Greenland, and announcing a major step to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses against Russia.
President Donald Trump used the closing press conference of the NATO summit in Ankara to deliver one of his sharpest warnings yet about communism, saying the ideology is gaining ground in the United States and abroad and poses a grave danger to American liberty.