Pakistan court orders teen Christian girl freed on bail in blasphemy case

A Christian Pakistani girl, covered in a white cloth, is ushered into a police vehicle in Islamabad to go for a medical examination after being charged with blasphemy, Aug. 27, 2012.

/ CBS

(CBS News) ISLAMABAD - A teenaged Christian girl arrested in Pakistan on a controversial charge of blasphemy was ordered released on bail by a judge Friday, but there are concerns that her life may still be in danger even after seemingly dodging the allegation - which could technically have brought the death penalty.

Judge Azam Khan ordered her release on about $10,000 bail after hearing competing arguments from the defense and prosecution lawyers. CBS News is withholding her identity as she is a minor. 

"Our position has been vindicated. My client is now free on bail," Tahir Chaudhary, the girl's lawyer told CBS News. The rare legal victory for an individual targeted with Pakistan's harsh blasphemy laws followed a tumultuous three weeks for the teenager who, according to a medical report, is 14 years old, but not intellectually developed to a level typical of her age. Chaudhary told CBS News his client suffers from "mental ailments that have hindered her mental development," without specifying her condition.

She was arrested after someone from her low-income neighborhood in Islamabad's suburbs complained of seeing her carrying burned pages of the Koran - the Islamic holy book. Desecration of the Koran is considered blasphemy in Pakistan - an offense which can bring the death penalty, though it has never been meted out in court.

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The case quickly turned in the girl's favor on Saturday, however, when Islamabad's police arrested Khalid Jadoon, the imam of a mosque near her home, on charges of planting evidence to bring the girl's arrest.

Jadoon's arrest followed an eyewitness account from a member of the mosque's congregation who claimed to have seen him place two torn pages from the Koran in a plastic bag allegedly recovered from the teenaged girl.

Chaudhary told CBS News his client will likely be released either on Friday or Saturday. But he warned a decision by the teenager and her family to return to their home would need to be "considered very carefully."

"We all fear for the family's life once they return home. I think they may have to be relocated," said Chaudhary, referring to threats from Islamic hardliners in the area.

Though Pakistan was created as an Islamic Republic in 1947, when it was carved out of British colonial India, it was not till the 1980s that Islamic hardliners found an opportunity to vigorously press for the imposition of Islamic law.

Analysts have said more people in Pakistan - particularly Christians and other religious minorities - are still at risk of being unfairly persecuted under the nation's blasphemy laws unless those laws are fundamentally changed.

"This case gained prominence because of the international attention that it gained worldwide," Tahira Abdullah, a prominent Pakistani human rights campaigner, told CBS News outside the court on Friday. "The problem is still that the law needs to be changed."

Correction: CBSNews.com originally reported the girl's bail amount was $5,000, but has since had clarification from the girl's lawyer that the sum equals about $10,000 U.S. dollars.

[GeorgeKafantaris]

Seeing the pious Pakistanis enforce antiquated blasphemy laws in the 21st century should give us pause.
Reflecting that the same Pakistanis have threatened to use their country's nuclear bomb on their populous neighbor should interrupt our sleep.
Why then are we preoccupied only with the prospect of a nuclear Iran?

[judymar3]

Religions = Ignorance

[pbaird2]

This is an example of why we must continue to keep the separation between Church and State in the U.S. The government must never be again allowed the power to regulate a citizen's choice of faith (or lack thereof).

[pcfpgarty]

Changes to our constitution and other Legislation recently proposed by various party leaders and associates in the U.S. are based on religious principles rather than social science and rational ethics . To follow the path as demanded by religious zealots in this country will land us in a social conundrum that mirrors the same things we now find disturbing and backward in places such as Pakistan. Yet here we go tossing the independence we once had to the wind and putting our individual freedoms on the sacrificial alter .

[john92021]

low income neighborhood family raised $10,000 for bail? Looks like political meddling by Christians in a declared Muslim state. True democracy is that the majority rules, if the majority decided there is only one religion, Christians cannot be upset because they have a long history of oppressing the populations of many countries until they were defeated by the majority. Spain is a fine example of killing people unless they converted. This notion of freeing a people by conquering them is bazaar. This is just more of the religious cold war. For all the reasons we kill each other, religion is way at the top of the list.

[netjunkie1]

True democracy recognizes that people are idiots and have safeguards against abuse of it.
In America its part of the constitution, we don't favor any religion and don't have blasphemy laws as they are simply wrong.
Our military should move to take the WMD's they have since they are a retarded nation, have fired on our soldiers out of hate,(while ours have only in combat, with exceptions of a few that are facing trial.)
have destroyed equipment needed to supply our troops, and are generally ungrateful as they have hidden away Osama Bin Laden in plain sight. They arrested anyone helping us kill him for treason.
That should tell you whose side they stand on in the war against the Taliban and Al Quada.
The ungrateful buggers don't even recognize the aid America gives them is keeping their nation alive.
I say get out or attack the WMD's and leave.

[soldiermomma]

I hope that this girl's family can raise the money. Is there fund-raising for them anywhere? I haven't heard of any, and I'm certain that the money could be raised to re-located Rimsha and her family. Furthermore, the investigation of the man who frammed her needs to be expanded. How about investigating the construction company and the owner of the land that her family lived on. I'm sure that the plot will thicken. Unless Pakistan makes an example of these evil people including the mob who beat her, nothing will change. The extremists understand fear so use this to clean up the country.