From Younus Shaikh: Thank You!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Dear Friends,

 

I want to thank you, the many thousands of my supporters, who have campaigned for so long to secure my release from jail in Pakistan where, for the past two years, I have been under sentence of death on a charge of blasphemy.

My case was a travesty of justice. A loyal and law- abiding Pakistani, Muslim by birth, a medical doctor and college teacher, I was an innocent victim sentenced to death on false and fabricated charges under the infamous Pakistani Islamic blasphemy law, 295-C of the Pakistani Penal Code. I was convicted on mere suspicion, and trumped-up allegations of utterances I was supposed to have made at a lecture that did not actually take place. My accusers were mischievous fascist fundamentalist mullahs who did not hear or witness anything themselves. They were aided by Pakistan’s ultra-corrupt and high-handed Islamic Police. My lawyers were subjected to mafia-style harassment regarding their children; with the Pakistani Taliban demonstrating their power with verbal violence outside the trial court.

 

The appeal court gave judgement in my case on 10 October 2003, expressing its dissatisfaction with the verdict of the lower court and sending the case back to the lower court for retrial. The retrial was held in three sessions in November. This time I conducted my own defence. I was acquitted after the third hearing on 20 November and released amid much secrecy the next day. Following my release, I visited family and friends in Pakistan before moving to Europe.

 

I am very grateful for the demonstrations, letters, phone calls, interviews with the media and meetings with diplomats made by so many of you. Thousands of

you copied your letters of protest to IHEU and I shall be emailing all of you in due course to give you my personal thanks. IHEU has been in touch with me throughout these past three years. The campaign IHEU organized to secure my release, and Levi Fragell’s visit to Pakistan and consultation with lawyers kept my morale up during the dark days. I would also like to thank the diplomats and government officials from many countries, and in particular, Norway, France, Switzerland, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Nations, who made representations on my behalf to the government of Pakistan, and those who have offered me a new home in the west.

 

Sincerely,

Dr M. Younus Shaikh, 5 January 2004