Islamabad, Pakistan — The case against Rimsha Masih, a teenage Pakistani Christian girl, has been dropped by the court in the capital, Islamabad. Rimsha, who was arrested in August on suspicion of desecrating Islamic texts, was originally charged in an adult court with blasphemy; there the penalty was life imprisonment. The girl’s case was subsequently transferred to the juvenile court after her age was certified and medical evidence emerged that her mental capacity was impaired. During this time she spent three weeks in protective custody in a maximum security prison.
Akmal Bhatti, Rimsha’s lawyer, said her case had been a misuse of law. “The court has quashed the case, declaring Rimsha innocent,” he said.
Khalid Jadoon, imam of a mosque close to Rimsha’s former family home in the Mehrabad sector of Islamabad, now faces the charge of making a false accusation.
So far there has been no response from Rimsha or her family, who remain in hiding at an undisclosed location. Rimsha’s attorneys said she and her family can never return to their home. Earlier reports that the family had been secreted away to Norway were denied by the Norwegian embassy in Pakistan and Pakistan’s minister of national harmony, Paul Bhatti, who said in November, “Mizrek Masih’s family is in Pakistan and in our protection.”
Naveed Chaudry, another of Rimsha’s lawyers, said, “This is the first case of its kind when a person charged under the strict blasphemy laws is exonerated from the accusation.”
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