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 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that American forces conducted another lethal strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people in what the administration calls part of a “noninternational armed conflict” with narco-terrorist networks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hamas must surrender its weapons or face dire consequences, saying that if the terror group refuses to disarm, “all hell breaks loose.” His comments came Tuesday in an interview with CBS, amid efforts to implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire and reconstruction plan for Gaza.
Belgium’s security forces used tear gas and a water cannon to disperse tens of thousands of protesters who flooded Brussels, the national and European Union capital, to express outrage over Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s proposed austerity measures.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump has posthumously awarded America’s highest civilian honor to Charlie Kirk, the assassinated born-again Christian activist who inspired a generation of young Americans and others worldwide to embrace their faith and conservative values.
A fire at a garment factory and an adjacent chemical warehouse in Bangladesh’s capital on Tuesday killed at least 16 people, and officials warned the death toll could rise as rescue operations continued late into the night.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet at the White House on Friday to discuss what both sides have described as a “Mega Deal” to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses — potentially including U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking deep inside Russia.
U.S. President Donald Trump said this week that Iran “took a big hit” following devastating U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on its nuclear facilities in June but added that peace between Iran and Israel “would be great” if it could be achieved.