Anika Atik says she was dragged into a religious discussion so that her accuser could get revenge.
A court in Pakistan has sentenced a woman to death for allegedly blasphemous messages sent via WhatsApp and Facebook.
Anika Atik, 26, was found guilty and sentenced to death by a court in Rawalpindi on January 19 after a complaint was registered against her under Pakistan’s draconian cybercrime and blasphemy laws.
According to the indictment, Atik, 26, met her Pakistani accuser online in 2019 through a mobile gaming app, and the couple began texting via WhatsApp.
He accused her of posting blasphemous cartoons of holy prophets, making remarks about “saintly persons” on WhatsApp, and using her Facebook account to send blasphemous material to other accounts. In doing so, she “knowingly and intentionally desecrates sacred righteous persons and offends the religious beliefs of Muslims,” the indictment says.
Atik, who said she was a practicing Muslim, denied all allegations. During the trial, Atik told the court that she believed the applicant had deliberately dragged her into a religious discussion in order to collect evidence and “retaliate” after she refused to be friends with him.
The court found her guilty, sentenced her to 20 years in prison and sentenced to hanging.
Ateeq lawyer Sayed Rashida Zainab said: “I cannot comment on the court’s decision as the matter is very sensitive.” Pakistan is an Islamic state and has some of the harshest blasphemy laws in the world, regularly imposing death sentences.
However, blasphemy trials in Pakistan are extremely dangerous, as defendants are often killed by vigilantes before the courts reach a verdict on their cases, while judges, fearing repercussions, rarely acquit defendants and are often pressured into convicting them.
Pakistan recently asked Facebook and Twitter to help identify its citizens suspected of blasphemy so it can prosecute or seek extradition.
While minorities such as Christians and Hindus have mostly faced legal persecution, Pakistani Muslims have also faced accusations of blasphemy. Cases are often dealt with quickly, in closed court, away from public scrutiny.
The evidence has been called into question in many cases. Pastor Zafar Bhatti, Pakistan’s longest-serving blasphemy pastor who was accused of sending blasphemous text messages insulting the mother of the Prophet Muhammad, claims the messages were sent from a number that did not belong to him. Bhatti was recently sentenced to death on these charges.
In recent years, social media has become the new frontier for blasphemy cases. The Electronic Crime Prevention Act (PECA), passed in 2016, gave the government greater powers to control content posted on social media, including content deemed blasphemous.
In 2017, Taimur Raza was the first person to be sentenced to death for allegedly committing blasphemy on Facebook, one of the first steps to step up the fight against dissent on social media following the passage of cybersecurity laws.
The issue of blasphemy remains very sensitive in Pakistan. Last month, a Sri Lankan citizen working at a factory in Pakistan was beaten to death and his body set on fire by a crowd of hundreds after he was accused of committing blasphemy by removing religious posters from the factory walls.
According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, about 80 people in Pakistan are in prison for blasphemy, at least half of them sentenced to death, although there have been no executions.