Asia Bibi pleads for justice for victims of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws as she plans to settle in Europe

An exclusive interview with the Sunday Telegraph

As Asia Bibi sits free at last in a secret location in Canada, the Pakistani Christian woman who spent years on death row after a false blasphemy charge thinks of those left behind still facing the same ordeal.

Yet while she is enthusiastically grateful for the international efforts to free her, she says the world should know that Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws have left many others still behind bars.

In her first ever newspaper interview, she told The Sunday Telegraph she had at times fallen into despair after being sentenced to death in a case condemned around the world.

She also spoke of her heartbreak at being forced to leave her homeland, amid fears she would be murdered by religious extremists even after Pakistan’s supreme court had quashed her flimsy conviction.

Her freedom was finally secured with mediation from a European Union special envoy, Jan Figel, a Slovak politican who has now for the first time spoken about negotiations to secure Mrs Bibi’s release as she was held in protective custody for months even after her release from prison.

While she is currently in Canada, she is hoping to move to an undisclosed country in Europe in the coming months.

“My whole life suffered, my children suffered and this had a huge impact on my life,” she said in a series of voice messages sent in response to questions from the Telegraph.

Mrs Bibi thanked the supreme court for acquitting her, but said others also needed fair trials. “There are many other cases where the accused are lying in jail for years and their decision should also be done on merit. The world should listen to them.”

“I request the whole world to pay attention to this issue. The way any person is alleged of blasphemy without any proper investigation without any proper proof, that should be noticed. This blasphemy law should be reviewed and there should be proper investigation mechanisms while applying this law. We should not consider anyone sinful for this act without any proof.”

She spent eight years on death row, constantly fearing for her life, before the case was quashed in the supreme court last October. However she was kept in custody for a further seven months as Imran Khan’s government wrestled with how to free her without angering influential hardline Islamist groups who had paralysed the country in protest at her acquittal.

Mr Figel, the EU special envoy on religious freedom since 2016, said: “I think Imran Khan’s government and Pakistan’s military used this delay to get the situation in the country under real control.” He held talks in Brussels with Pakistan’s attorney general, Anwar Khan and Human Rights minister, Shireen Mazari, on how to free her.

As the months dragged on, Mrs Bibi and her husband Ashiq Masih were kept in government safe houses first in the hills outside the capital Islamabad and then in the port city of Karachi. While given a television and a smartphone, they were unable to go outside. The strain saw Mrs Bibi fall into depression and be treated for heart problems.

Throughout this time she was in daily contact with Muhammad Amanullah, a human rights activist who had previously helped five other people accused of blasphemy. Mr Amanullah acted as her direct liaison with the EU.

He said: “[Pakistan’s government] always told us it will be two weeks, or 10 days, two weeks, 10 days and like this we spent seven months.” He went on: “At one point she had lost her hope and one day she told me, if I am assassinated, or anything happens to me please do not forget my daughters.”

Early candidates for asylum included France and Belgium, but as time went on, Mrs Bibi’s daughters were granted temporary refuge in Canada. Mrs Bibi had wanted to go to Europe, but arrangements were made for her to follow them and she finally left Pakistan in May. Mrs Bibi and Mr Figel both rejected earlier reports she had ever wanted to go to the UK. She said she had never contacted the UK or asked to go there.

Sadly, I do not believe that she would be safe in the UK; however it was reprehensible that the British government did nothing to assist or support through fear of our islamists within. Shame on you.

The whole family is later expected to move to an undisclosed European country. “Security conditions are crucially important for Asia Bibi and for her family,” said Mr Figel.

When her freedom finally arrived, security concerns meant Asia Bibi was unable to say goodbye to her father or her home town. “My heart was broken when I left that way without meeting my family. Pakistan is my country, Pakistan is my homeland, I love my country, I love my soil,” she said.

Mr Amanullah has also left the country after being declared an apostate because of his work with those accused of blasphemy.

Mr Figel said Asia Bibi was “an admirably brave woman and loving mother” who had refused to give up her Christian faith in exchange for immediate freedom.

The first public comment reminds the readers that Pakistan is “the biggest recipient of UK foreign aid, receiving about £460 million per year”. Theresa May’s government could have exerted some moral influence, I’m sure.