Pakistani student sentenced to death over ‘blasphemous’ WhatsApp messages

A Pakistan court has sentenced a 22-year-old student to death for sharing photos and videos on WhatsApp that depicted the Prophet Muhammed, according to a report.

A 17-year-old was also sentenced to life in prison after also being found guilty for blasphemy — a charge punishable by death in the Muslim country, the BBC reported.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency’s [FIA] cybercrime unit filed a complaint in 2022 and the death sentence was issued this week in a local court in the city of Gujranwala, north of Lahore.

The 22-year-old, who has not been identified, was sentenced to death after he was found guilty of preparing photos and videos that contained disparaging statements about Muhammad and his wives, according to the outlet. 

The teenager, also unnamed, was found guilty of sharing them. He escaped the death penalty due to his age, officials said.

Both defendants denied the allegations and their attorneys claim the pair have been “trapped in a false case.”

The FIA said that investigators had gone through their phone and discovered the “obscene material.”

The 22-year-old’s father told the BBC he planned to file an appeal in Lahore High Court.

Blasphemy laws have been codified in Pakistan since British rule, but later expanded under Pakistan’s military government, according to the outlet.

In 1980, it became illegal to make derogatory comments against Islamic figures, an offense, punishable by up to three years in jail. 

Desecration of the Quran could land an offender in prison for life after the laws were amended in 1982 and then in 1986, a separate clause was added to making blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad punishable by “death, or imprisonment for life”, in that order.