Pakistani Asia Bibi’s lawyer escapes to Netherlands
Pakistani lawyer, Saiful Mulook, who helped free a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy has fled to the Netherlands, a Dutch Christian rights group said on Monday.
Mulook left Pakistan on Saturday, due to fear that he could be attacked after Bibi’s conviction was overturned on Wednesday, the Association for Persecuted Christians said.
Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam, and had been sentenced to death. Mulook helped overturn the decision, and has been threatened by angry mobs calling for the judges in the case to be killed.
Two Pakistani politicians who tried to help Bibi have been assassinated. Several parties in Dutch parliament have said they support providing temporary shelter to Bibi if she flees there.
Islamists have shut down major cities in Pakistan through days of demonstrations against Bibi’s. They have said they would escalate their protests if she were permitted to leave the country. The government has indicated it will bar her from traveling abroad.
