Aasia Bibi is in Pakistan: FO

ISLAMABAD:   Foreign Office on Thursday dismissed reports that Asia Bibi has left the country after being released from jail.

“Asia Bibi is in Pakistan. There is no truth in reports about Asia Bibi leaving the country,” Foreign Office spokesman said on a private TV channel.

Asia Bibi who spent eight years on death row for blasphemy has been freed from jail and is believed to have already flown out of the city of Multan where she was being held, heading for an unknown destination, her lawyer said Thursday.

Asia Bibi´s release comes a week after her acquittal in a landmark case that triggered angry protests.

Bibi´s conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court last Wednesday, but she remained in prison as the government negotiated with protesters who blockaded major cities and demanded her immediate execution.

“She has been freed,” lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook said in a text message to AFP. “I have been told that she is on a plane but nobody knows where she will land.”

According to a civil aviation official, the aircraft that collected Bibi from jail would be required to land in Islamabad.

Following protests at last week´s ruling, the government agreed in a deal with Islamists to impose a travel ban on Bibi, and not to challenge an appeal in the Supreme Court.

An order for her release arrived Wednesday at the jail in the central city of Multan where she was held, a prison official told AFP.

“Asia Bibi has left the prison and has been transferred to a safe place!” tweeted Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament.

Another civil aviation official, in Multan, said a small plane arrived in the city with “a few foreigners and some Pakistanis” on board to fetch Bibi.

Pope Benedict XVI called for her release in 2010, while his successor, Pope Francis, met her daughter in 2015.

 

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