Lahore High Court hears appeal in death-sentence blasphemy case against former lecturer Junaid Hafeez, seeking arguments on digital evidence admissibility.
Pakistan’s Lahore High Court heard arguments Tuesday in the appeal of Junaid Hafeez, a former university lecturer sentenced to death on blasphemy charges in 2019. The court sought prosecution arguments on the admissibility of electronic evidence, including a Facebook page attributed to Hafeez, with the next hearing scheduled for October 10.
- ▪Hafeez, a former visiting lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University, was arrested in March 2013 and convicted in December 2019 on blasphemy charges linked to alleged Facebook posts.
- ▪A two-judge bench comprising Justices Sadiq Mahmud Khurram and Muhammad Jawad Zafar is hearing the appeal, which has been pending since 2020.
- ▪The case was transferred from Multan High Court to the principal Lahore bench in December 2021 at Hafeez’s lawyer’s request.
- ▪The court specifically requested prosecution arguments on whether electronic evidence and the disputed Facebook page are admissible in the case.
- ▪Seven different judges have been assigned to the case over its course; 15 prosecution witnesses testified while 11 others were deemed irrelevant.
- ▪Hafeez’s former lawyer Rashid Rehman was shot dead in his office in May 2014; another lawyer received an ISIS threat letter in December 2014.
- ▪The trial was moved to Multan Central Jail in April 2014 due to security concerns, and the hearing has been deferred multiple times.
- ▪The next hearing is set for October 10 after the complainant’s counsel requested more time to prepare arguments.
Source: according to media reports
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