Lawyer Of Pakistani Scholar Facing Execution Voices Hope For Release

A Pakistani court has formally taken up the appeal of former university lecturer Junaid Hafeez against his death sentence, giving his legal team and family new hope that his conviction will be overturned, his lawyer said.

The two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court admitted the appeal and issued formal notices to prosecutors. The move marks the first substantive hearing in Hafeez's appeal since the case was transferred from Multan, his lawyer Asad Jamal said.

Hafeez was a visiting lecturer in English literature at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan after returning from the United States, where he studied on a Fulbright scholarship. Police arrested him in March 2013 after student groups accused him of insulting Islam on social media and in the classroom.

The trial was repeatedly disrupted by death threats and security concerns. Authorities moved the proceedings inside Multan Central Jail in 2014. That same year, gunmen shot and killed human rights advocate Rashid Rehman in his Multan office after Rehman agreed to represent Hafeez. Multiple judges were also transferred during the proceedings.

A district and sessions court in Multan sentenced Hafeez to death in December 2019 under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code. The trial court also handed down additional prison terms under other blasphemy statutes. Hafeez appealed in 2020, but high court hearings faced years of deferrals.

Rights groups and Hafeez's family have raised persistent alarms about his physical and mental health. Hafeez has spent more than a decade in solitary confinement inside a narrow cell at a high-security prison in Multan, his defenders said. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly demanded his release, stating the conditions amount to cruel and inhuman treatment.

During the appeal hearing, the high court questioned prosecutors about the electronic evidence that formed the core of the state's case. The judges noted that investigators failed to conduct proper forensic testing on the social media material, Jamal said. The court also highlighted the legal difference between an administrator and general users of an online discussion group.

Jamal said the judges showed a firm grasp of the facts and indicated the court would resolve the case without prolonged delays. The court directed the prosecution to submit detailed arguments on the admissibility of the digital evidence before scheduling the next hearing date.