Police submits interim charge sheet against Rimsha Masih

The police submitted an interim charge sheet in a local court on Saturday against 14-year-old Rimsha Masih accused of blasphemy.

However, the hearing couldn’t be held due to absence of the judge. Police submitted the interim charge sheet in the case court of District and Session Judge Islamabad Raja Jawad Abbas.

In the meantime, Civil Judge Amir Aziz Khan, who had been hearing the case, had gone on leave. However, the reason of his sudden leave couldn’t ascertain thus far.

District Attorney expressing reservations on certain points in the charge sheet singed it along with his note of objections.

A ruling pertaining to the case’s hearing in the concerned court was expected to be issued later by the judge.

Earlier on Sept 7, the additional district and session court of Islamabad had granted bail to the girl. Later on Sept 8, she was transported by a helicopter to an undisclosed location under the protective custody of police after completion of legal formalities by her lawyers.

The girl belonging to the Christian community is said to be suffering from Down’s Syndrome. She had been arrested on Aug 16 under the blasphemy charges.

The girl’s arrest had also triggered an exodus of several hundred Christians from her poor neighbourhood on the edge of Islamabad.

It is vital to mention here that police had also arrested Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, the imam of the mosque in Rimsha’s area who first submitted the burnt papers as evidence against her, after his deputy told the police that he had tampered with the evidence.

Chishti’s deputy Hafiz Mohammad Zubair and two others, Mohammad Shahzad and Awais Ahmed, told a magistrate the cleric added pages from the Holy Quran to the burnt pages brought to him by a witness to beef up the case against her.

A medical report had said Rimsha appeared to be around 14 years old, which would make her a minor, and had a mental age below her true age, but the court has yet to decide whether to accept the assessment.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Sep 22 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.