A Pakistani Christian boy accused of blasphemy for ‘liking’ and ‘sharing’ a Facebook post which ‘defamed and disrespected’ the Kaaba in Mecca – the building at the centre of Islam’s most sacred mosque – was again refused bail in May.
In February, 16-year-old Nabeel Masih was refused bail by a local magistrate, despite his lawyers’ insistence that, as a child with no prior convictions, he should be released. The Districts and Sessions judge Naveeb Iqbal came to the same decision, saying that the boy committed a ‘heinous and odious act by defiling the religious feelings of Muslims’.
Judge wrong?
The same judge in 2010 convicted the Christian woman Asia Bibi of blasphemy. She has been on death row ever since.
