ISTANBUL, Pakistan — After nearly six years in jail on false charges of blasphemy, acquitted Christian prisoner Ayub Masih slipped out of Pakistan in early September for residence in a safe, undisclosed location. Masih’s emergency departure, forced by the ongoing threats of local Islamist militants vowing to kill him, came several weeks after his landmark acquittal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Aug. 15.
Pakistan’s highest judicial authority ordered the 31-year-old Masih released immediately from his high-security cell on death row in the Multan New Central Jail “for reasons to be recorded later,” declared a panel of three judges in Islamabad.
However, it was a full week before judicial paperwork was completed for Masih’s release, arranged secretly after midnight on Aug. 21. Although he was promptly taken into hiding under strict security precautions, rumors soon began to circulate about his whereabouts. Even the staff in the government passport office received threats, warning them against issuing travel documents to allow the “Christian blasphemer” to escape the country.
First arrested near Arifwala in Punjab province on Oct. 14, 1996, Masih had been condemned to death in April 1998 by the Sahiwal District Court. Days later, Roman Catholic Bishop John Joseph of Faisalabad committed suicide to protest his conviction, causing an uproar in the Christian community that left Masih’s appeal stalled for more than three years. Eventually on July 24, 2001, the Multan Bench of the Lahore High Court upheld the execution judgment, leaving Masih one final appeal before the Supreme Court.
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