Pakistan minister backs new probe in Christian mother case

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani cabinet minister on Thursday called for a thorough re-investigation and fair appeal for a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy after the Pope called for her release.

On November 8 Asia Bibi was sentenced to hang in Pakistan’s central province of Punjab after being accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed in 2009.

She has filed an appeal at Lahore high court, the top court in Punjab.

“We have requested the Punjab government that the trial should be fair in the high court. She must also be provided security in jail,” said Pakistan’s minister for minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti.

Asia’s supporters say the case is baseless and that her first trial “was not heard properly,” Bhatti told AFP.

“We have, therefore, asked the Punjab government that the case be reinvestigated properly.”

Pope Benedict XVI

Suu Kyi Sentenced By Court To A 3 Years Prison

YANGON: A Myanmar court has found pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kui guilty of violating her house arrest, but the head of the military-ruled country says she can serve out a 1 1/2-year sentence under house arrest.

The court initially sentenced Suu Kyi on Tuesday to a three-year prison term. But after a five-minute recess, the country’s home minister entered the courtroom and read aloud a special order from junta chief Than Shwe.

The order said Than Shwe was cutting the sentence in half to 1 1/2 years and that it could be served under house arrest.

Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest.

The court also sentenced American John Yettaw to seven years in prison, including four years at hard labor, for entering pro-democracy leader’s home while she was under house arrest.

The 53-year-old Yettaw was found guilty Tuesday of violating the terms of Suu Kyi’s detention by swimming to her lakeside home uninvited and staying for two days.

The court sentenced Yettaw to three years in prison for breaching Suu Kyi’s house arrest, three years in prison with hard labor for an immigration violation and another year in jail with hard labor for swimming in a restricted zone.

It was not clear if the prison terms would be served concurrently.

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Suu Kyi Sentenced By Court To A 3 Years Prison