Pakistan
Student sentenced to death for WhatsApp messages
Whatsapp is the most used messenger worldwide
© Zacharie Scheurer / DPA
A 22-year-old in Pakistan is facing execution for sending WhatsApp messages. He is said to have sent blasphemous messages.
We know messages or status messages on WhatsApp that sometimes go beyond good taste. Be it because they judge people they know too harshly or because they abandon good taste. If the content is relevant to criminal law, court rulings with penalties can also occur in Germany (find out more here). However, the sentences are not as harsh as in Pakistan. A young man there has now been sentenced to death because of several WhatsApp messages.
The 22-year-old was reported to the cybercrimes department of the Federal Police FIA by an acquaintance in 2022, reports the “BBC”. He is said to have shared images and videos in a chat with several people that insulted the Islamic prophet Mohammed and his wives. Another chat participant was also charged as a result. Now both have been convicted.
Whatsapp: Convicted people claim innocence
The court found it proven that the 22-year-old was guilty of blasphemy after police found “obscene” material on his smartphone. Blasphemy is punishable by death in the Muslim country. His co-defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment because the 17-year-old was a minor at the time of the crime. The father of the man sentenced to death has announced an appeal.
The defense lawyers had argued that the two defendants had been lured into a trap. It is not known who reported them.
Blasphemy accusations as revenge
In fact, there have been several cases in the past in which young people were sentenced to death because of supposedly blasphemous images. Aneeqa Ateeq was also sentenced to death around 2022 at the age of 26. She accuses an acquaintance of setting up the blasphemous status on her smartphone after she rejected his advances.
The 97 percent Muslim country’s blasphemy laws were introduced during the British colonial era. In recent years, the abuse of the law to get rid of unwanted people has increased. Lynch mobs are also more likely to invoke blasphemy to justify their actions.