Letter from a free man

Dear Friends,

I want to thank you, the many thousands of my supporters, who have campaigned for so long to secure my release from jail in Pakistan where, for the past three years, I have been under sentence of death on a charge of blasphemy.

My case was a travesty of justice. A patriotic and law-abiding Pakistani, Muslim by birth, a medical doctor and college teacher by profession, I was an innocent victim sentenced to death on false and fabricated charges under the infamous Islamic blasphemy law, 295-C of the Pakistani Penal Code. I was convicted on mere suspicion and trumped-up allegations of words I was supposed to have uttered at a lecture that did not take place. My accusers were fascist fundamentalist mullahs and Pakistani Taliban who neither heard nor witnessed anything themselves. They were aided by Pakistan's corrupt and high-handed Islamic Police and the Inter Services Intelligence (Military Intelligence). My lawyers were subjected to mafia-style harassment, and warned to "think of their children", while the Pakistani Taleban demonstrating their power with verbal violence outside the courtroom.

The appeal court gave partial judgement in my case on 10th October 2003, expressing its dissatisfaction with the verdict of the lower court and sending the case back to the lower court for retrial. The retrial was held in three sessions during November. This time, in view of the threats my lawyers had received, I decided to conduct my own defence. I was acquitted on 20th November and released in great secrecy on 21st.

Following my release I spent several weeks visiting family and friends, but during this time I received indirectly a number of threats to my life, and in the second week of January I heard that my accusers had appealed against my acquittal. I realised that for my safety I had to leave my country.

I am very grateful for the campaign led by IHEU, the Rationalist International and other organizations from all over the world, and for the demonstrations, letters, phone calls, media interviews and meetings with diplomats made by so many of you. I shall be emailing most of you in due course to give you my personal thanks. I also want to thank the diplomats and government officials from many countries, and in particular, Norway, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and the United Nations who made representations on my behalf to the government of Pakistan, and to those who have offered me a new
home in Europe.

But happy though I am to be free, I cannot forget that as long as the Blasphemy laws are on the statute books, they will continue to be misused. At this very moment there are at least 100 innocent people,victims of these black laws, languishing in various jails and lock-ups in Pakistan awaiting an uncertain future. It is a sad reflection on the state of society in Pakistan that even when individuals are exonerated, their lives may still be threatened by the fundamentalists and many will be forced to flee Pakistan. The state seems unable to provide us protection. I was not at all eager to leave my country and would willingly have stayed with my family and friends.

We must all work for the elimination of these and all of the other dreadful, draconian, religiously-motivated laws, and to save innocent victims from their abuse.

Sincerely,

Dr M. Younus Shaikh