"Pakistan Supreme Court acquits elderly Catholic of ‘blasphemy’ after 23 years on death row"

"After spending 23 years on death row for alleged blasphemy, a Christian man in Pakistan has been acquitted by the country’s Supreme Court.

Anwar Kenneth, a 72-year-old Catholic, was acquitted by the Pakistani Supreme Court in Islamabad on June 25. The court ruled that Kenneth is mentally unfit and therefore not criminally liable under the blasphemy law.

Supreme Court attorney Rana Abdul Hameed expressed relief at the verdict, noting that Kenneth had suffered unjustly due to his mental condition.

'It is very unfortunate that an elderly man has languished in various prisons for over two decades despite his mental health condition,' Hameed told the Christian Daily International.

Kenneth was arrested in 2001 for allegedly writing letters which contained 'blasphemy' against Mohammed and the Quran. The letters were mailed to Muslim religious scholars, Muslim heads of state, foreign diplomats in Pakistan, the United Nations secretary-general, and Christian theologians. Under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law, the crime for 'insulting the Prophet Muhammad' is a capital offense.

The letters, as Hameed expresses, simply 'stated the Christian belief regarding Islam' and did not contain offensive language directed towards any religious figures in Islam."