By Canadian Press

Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy in Pakistan arrives in Canada: lawyer

May 10, 2019 | 6:37 AM

OTTAWA — Conservatives in Canada want the federal government and the international community to push Pakistan to address its “abhorrent misuse of blasphemy laws” after the safe arrival in Canada of a Christian woman who spent eight years on Pakistan’s death row.

Aasia Bibi’s lawyer told The Canadian Press she arrived in Canada Tuesday morning, though he had not spoken to her before she left.

“She is finally free from all ordeals,” Saif-ul Malook said in an interview from Lahore, Pakistan. “Her daughters are in Ottawa. They landed in December last year so naturally she must have been joining them.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last November that Canada was in talks with the Pakistani government about Bibi but would not comment on the case Wednesday, citing “sensitive privacy issues and security issues.”

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Officials at Pakistan’s interior and foreign ministries confirmed her departure, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

Canadian officials would give very little information about the Bibi case. Rob Oliphant, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, said only: “I do know that Pakistan has indicated that she was safe and she’s in the process of travelling somewhere … We are thanking Pakistan for her safety.”

Politicians in many parts of the world praised Bibi’s safe exit from Pakistan, including United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May. May confirmed in the British House of Commons Wednesday that Canada’s asylum offer had been accepted.

“Canada made this offer and we thought it was right and appropriate that we supported the offer that Canada had made,” she said.

Many Canadian politicians welcomed Bibi to Canada in statements on Twitter, but Edmonton-area Conservative MP Garnett Genuis used the platform to say Canada must do more than just provide a safe haven.

“Canada has a responsibility to speak out on the international stage for persecuted religious minorities in Pakistan and around the world,” he said. “We must deepen our commitment to being a global defender of pluralism, human rights and democracy.”

Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law carries an automatic death penalty.

Bibi was accused of blasphemy in 2009 after a fight with two fellow farmworkers who refused to drink from the same water jug as a Christian woman. She was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010. She was in solitary confinement in prison until Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned the conviction last October, citing inconsistencies in the evidence against her but leaving the law in place. She had been held in a locked room in protective custody ever since.

The court decision led to several days of riots in Pakistan that culminated with the government striking a deal with the Tehreek-e-Labbaik political party, which was leading the protests, promising that Bibi would not be allowed to leave Pakistan.

Malook said Bibi, who is in her mid-50s, had been looking forward to coming to Canada.

“If you’re in hell and somebody would say you’re soon to be in paradise, there is no question to ask,” he said.

When Bibi was in prison, he said, he’d sit with his client and spend “many, many hours and I’d tell her when you are released the American president will send his plane for you and she used to laugh.”

Malook said his own safety is in jeopardy for helping Bibi. He hopes she will be left alone in Canada but her safety is not assured, with death threats against her and her family remaining.

“The Supreme Court of Pakistan has announced that the allegation against her for blasphemy was false,” Malook said. “Please don’t follow her. Let her lead the rest of her life in peace.”

Wilson Chowdhry of the British Pakistani Christian Association said in a blog post Wednesday that he received the confirmation of Bibi’s departure from Pakistan around 8 p.m. ET Tuesday. He also said she is “unwell” after suffering a decade of isolation both in and out of captivity.

“She must be treated with utmost care and receive appropriate medical care now she is free,” he said.

A friend, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said he last spoke to her on Tuesday. He said Bibi and her husband Ashiq Masih had spent the last several weeks getting their documents in order. The friend said she was longing to see her daughters, with whom she talked almost daily from her secure location, protected by Pakistani security forces.

—with files from Hina Alam in Vancouver, Mia Rabson in Ottawa and The Associated Press.

The Canadian Press