My flesh and my heart faileth:
but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
Psalm 73:26
"Sajjad Masih Gill is a 35-year-old Seventh-Day Adventist from Pakpatan, Punjab, Pakistan.
blasphemous SMS messages disrespected Prophet
Muhammad, and he was swiftly arrested. Authorities were unable to find
any evidence on his cell phone that he had actually sent any blasphemous
messages.
Reason for Arrest:
In December 2011, Sajjad Masih Gill was accused of sending
In July 2013, a court in Gojra, Punjab sentenced Gill to life imprisonment and a fine of 314,500 rupees (≈ USD $4,260) for committing blasphemy. The International Religious Liberty Association reports the following:
“in the course of the prosecution, Masih’s original accuser retracted his allegations and the prosecutor failed to produce any evidence of the alleged crime. At the time, Masih’s defense lawyer, Javed Sahotra, said that the intense pressure by extremists played a decisive role in obtaining a conviction, despite the lack of evidence.”
In October 2015, Gill’s brother Sarfaz and his nephew Ramiz were attacked on their way home from visiting Gill in Sahiwal Jail. As a result, much of Gill’s family has since gone into hiding.In January 2016,
two lawyers from Punjab-based Legal Evangelical Association Development
(LEAD) who represent Gill were stopped on the road between Kasur and
Lahore by a group of “armed militants” who threatened violence to them
and their families if they would continue defending Gill.
March 2021:
During the appeal (read: conviction revision) hearing, the court had
accepted the prosecution’s argument that the death penalty is the only
permissible punishment for blasphemy and that life imprisonment is
“repugnant”. The prosecution lawyer who filed the argument for the
invocation of the death penalty, Zeeshan Ahmed Awan, celebrated by
posting the following remarks on Facebook:
- “Honorable Lahore High Court accepts our prosecution argument that ‘Capital Sentence is the only possible Sentence in Blasphemy and Imprisonment for Life though provided in 295 C PPC, awarded by Trial Court is illegal being repugnant to injunctions of Islam’! Criminal Revision admitted, Notice to accused for conversion of life imprisonment to death sentence issued, Appeal of accused sent to Division Bench!”
November 2021:
It was reported that Gill had been acquitted of his charges on the
grounds of insufficient evidence, and he was released after spending
nearly ten years in prison.
January 2022: Jubilee Campaign received news that Gill is currently in
hiding and remains fearful as there appear to be radical Muslims who are
actively searching for him, likely to exact revenge."
JubileeCampaign