A Pakistani court has sentenced a 22-year-old student to death for sharing photos and videos depicting the Prophet Muhammad on WhatsApp, according to reports.
A 17-year-old boy was also found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to life in prison, a crime punishable by death in the Muslim country. BBC reported.
Pakistan Federal Bureau of Investigation [FIA] The Cyber Crime Control Wing filed a charge sheet in 2022 and the death sentence was handed down this week at a local court in Gujranwala city north of Lahore.
The 22-year-old, whose identity is unknown, was found guilty and sentenced to death for making photos and videos containing defamatory statements against Muhammad and his wives, the newspaper said.
The teenager, also anonymous, was found guilty of sharing them. Officials said he was spared the death penalty because of his age.
Both defendants deny the charges, and their lawyers claim they were “implicated in a false incident.”
The FIA said investigators searched their mobile phones and found “obscene content”.
The 22-year-old’s father told the BBC he plans to appeal to the Lahore High Court.
According to the newspaper, blasphemy laws have been codified in Pakistan since the British rule, but were later expanded under Pakistan’s military regime.
In 1980, making derogatory comments about Muslims was made illegal, punishable by up to three years in prison.
In 1982, the law was amended so that offenders who blasphemed the Quran could be sentenced to life in prison, and in 1986, another provision was introduced that made blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad punishable in the order of “death penalty or life imprisonment”. has been added.
