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Witnesses retract statements against imam in Pakistani blasphemy case - CNN.com
>From Reza Sayah and Nasir Habib, CNN
October 1, 2012 -- Updated 1133 GMT (1933 HKT)
CNN.com
Rimsha Masih sits in a helicopter after her release from jail in Rawalpindi on
September 8, 2012.
Rimsha Masih sits in a helicopter after her release from jail in Rawalpindi on
September 8, 2012.
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Three witnesses in a tampering case against an
imam accused of trying to frame a Pakistani teen on blasphemy charges disowned
police statements filed on their behalf Monday, saying they never saw the
cleric planting evidence.
The cleric, Khalid Jadoon Chishti, is accused of tampering with evidence and
tearing pages out of the Quran in order to bolster the blasphemy case against
Rimsha Masih, a Christian teen accused of burning texts from the Muslim holy
book as cooking fuel.
Police filed statements from witnesses saying they had seen the imam planting
evidence. But at Chishti's bail hearing Monday, three out of the four witnesses
contradicted the statements submitted in their names by police, according to
the cleric's lawyer, Wajid Ali Gilani.
In their affidavits, the three witnesses said they didn't see Chishti
desecrating the Quran's pages or adding them to a bag of ashes allegedly
recovered from Rimsha, Gilani said. The cleric's bail hearing has been
adjourned until Wednesday, he said.
Chishti denies the allegations.
Islamabad police Chief Bin Yamin said investigators did not pressure the
witnesses into recording false statements, which he said were made before a
magistrate.
"If they have changed their statements, they are just lying," he said.
Police arrested Rimsha in August after accusations she had violated the
country's blasphemy laws. The girl has denied the charges, and a police
investigation last month concluded she had been framed by Chishti, who now
could face blasphemy charges of his own.
Rimsha will have to wait at least another two weeks to learn her fate after a
court ordered a stay of proceedings in her case Monday.
A juvenile court had been due to hear her case, but the Islamabad High Court
said the hearing should wait until it has ruled on a petition by her lawyers
seeking a dismissal, one of the lawyers said.
Rimsha's lawyers say they are basing their petition to the high court on the
police investigation's conclusion that Chishti framed her and the absence of
witnesses who saw her burning the pages.
The high court's next hearing on the case will take place October 17, said
Abdul Hamid Rana, the leading lawyer for Rimsha.
Rimsha, 14, had been held in an adult jail before she was released on bail in
September. A local court transferred her case to the juvenile court last week
after the police investigation said she had been framed.
The switch to the juvenile case was a good sign, a rights group says.
"This is a precursor to the case ending, and that is quite unprecedented in the
25-year history of Pakistan's blasphemy laws," said Ali Dayan Hasan, the
Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch.
The case sparked an international outcry, with critics saying Pakistan's
blasphemy laws are used to settle scores and persecute religious minorities.
Blasphemy laws have been a part of life in Pakistan for 25 years; they were
first instituted to keep peace between religions.
Actions perceived as insults to Islam provoke fierce reactions in the
predominantly Muslim nation, as demonstrated by the recent angry protests in
response to an anti-Islam film produced in the United States and made available
online.
Investigators said Rimsha's neighbor accused her of burning Quran pages to use
as cooking fuel. The neighbor began to shout in protest, drawing a crowd that
grew angry.
Some neighbors said the teenager was beaten. Others said she ran back home and
locked herself inside. When police arrived, they arrested her.
Rimsha's lawyers said the neighbor wanted to settle a personal score with the
girl because the two didn't get along. They said it's likely that he liked the
teen and she didn't feel the same.
The lawyers say that no one actually saw Rimsha burning the papers, but that
the neighbor went to Chishti with the bags.
According to police, Chishti wasn't certain that simply burning pages with
texts from the Quran would be enough to convict Rimsha on blasphemy charges.
So, he added two pages from the actual holy book to the bag to bolster the
case, they said.
The pursuit of the accusations against the cleric are significant in Pakistan,
Hasan said, because "never before has a false accuser been held accountable."
There have been 1,400 blasphemy cases since 1986, according to Human Rights
Watch. There are more than 15 cases of people on death row for blasphemy in
Pakistan, and 52 have been killed while facing trial for the charge, he said.
Rimsha and her family spoke to CNN last month from an undisclosed location
after she was released on bail.
The teen denied that she defiled the Quran. She said she was happy to be with
her family, but feared for her life.
"I'm scared," she said by phone. "I'm afraid of anyone who might kill us."
Aid groups in the United States, Italy and Canada have offered the teen and her
family a home outside Pakistan, a family representative said.
But no matter how her case pans out, it's unclear what kind of life she might
be able to have. She has said she wants to stay in her home country.
171
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