Pakistan man freed after spending nine years in jail on false blasphemy charges

Put in jail in September of 2008, the accused was let off by Pakistani Supreme Court due to lack of evidence.

A decade is a long span of time in someone's life - more so in the life of a 58-year-old man in Pakistan who spent the last nine years behind bars.

Pakistani newspaper Dawn on Saturday reported that the man was arrested on charges of blasphemy on September 29 of 2008 but on Friday, the Pakistani Supreme Court absolved him of the charges.

The man was previously accused of desecrating pages of the Holy Quran in a local mosque. A case under Section 295-B of the Pakistani Penal Code was registered and he was beaten up by the local panchayat before being handed over to police. A charge sheet was filed against him and a local sessions judge awarded life imprisonment. 

Although the Lahore High Court had upheld the charges, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that there was no evidence against the accused and freed him of his ordeal. The two-judge bench further observed that the man who had first reported the accused was, in fact, guilty of committing blasphemy.