Posted: 05/15/2014 at 2:15pm | IP Logged

PAKISTAN (ANS) -- A “fearless” lawyer has been murdered in Pakistan for defending a man charged with insulting Islam.

Rashid Rehman

According to a story by Matthew Blake for The Mail Online, Rashid Rehman, 53, took on the case of university lecturer Junaid Hafeez when no other lawyer in the city of Multan would because he believed in the universal human right to legal counsel, friends said.

Rehman continued defending Hafeez, accused of defaming the Prophet Mohammed on social media last year, despite receiving death threats from the prosecution itself.

On Wednesday evening, two gunmen posing as prospective clients burst into his office and opened fire.

“He was shot five times and succumbed to his injuries on the way to hospital,” The Mail said a policeman told Reuters.

Hafeez had been in prison without being able to find a lawyer until Rehman agreed to represent him in February.

Blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan, but the accused are often lynched or languish for years in jail without trial because lawyers are too afraid to defend them. Rights groups say the laws are increasingly used to seize money or property.

Judges have previously been attacked in Pakistan for acquitting blasphemy defendants and two politicians who discussed reforming the law were shot dead.

On Thursday morning, The Mail reported, an unsigned pamphlet was distributed in Multan saying Rehman met his “rightful end” for trying to “save someone who disrespected the Prophet Mohammed.”

“We warn all lawyers to be afraid of god and think twice before engaging in such acts,” the pamphlet said.

Rehman worked for the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). He frequently denounced the repression of Pakistan's dwindling religious minorities.

“He was a dedicated activist from the very beginning,” The Mail reported senior HRCP official Zaman Khan told The Independent. “All his life he was helping the downtrodden. He was fearless and never gave any time to the threats. He said he would live for the struggle and die for the struggle.”

Rehman began receiving threats from other lawyers as soon as he took on the case, according to the commission.

“During arguments for acquittal of the accused, three persons addressed defense lawyer Rashid Rehman, in the judge's presence, and said, ‘You will not come to court next time because you will not exist any more,’” the commission said in April.

HRCP chairwoman Zohra Yusuf said she was devastated.

“We have lost four human rights defenders in the last three years. Others are under constant threat. The state does not even notice,” The Mail reported she said.

At least 16 people are on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy and at least 20 are serving life sentences. Many others are in prison despite not having been convicted.

At least 52 people accused of blasphemy have been lynched since 1990, according to a 2012 report from the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies think tank.

Source: Assist News Service