by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – Pakistan’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentences of two brothers who spent about 20 years imprisoned on blasphemy charges after psychiatric evidence raised doubts about their criminal responsibility, human rights advocates confirmed Sunday.
Umar Draz and Liaqat Ali were acquitted after specialist medical examinations diagnosed both men with bipolar disorder, including episodes involving psychotic symptoms.
The ruling overturned convictions previously upheld by the Lahore High Court in September 2015.
Both brothers had been sentenced to death under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s Penal Code, which criminalizes insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and carries the death penalty.
Their case began in 2006 following a marital dispute between Draz and his wife, who accused him of making blasphemous statements before their divorce.
RELIGIOUS CONVERSION
Court documents indicated that Draz had declared his conversion from Islam in writing during the divorce proceedings. His subsequent religious affiliation was not established, and the court did not conclude that his conversion motivated the prosecution.
His brother was implicated after a document containing allegedly blasphemous statements was reportedly discovered among belongings returned following the divorce.
An initial medical examination in 2007 found both men mentally sound, but specialist assessments in 2023 and 2025 diagnosed bipolar disorder, including psychotic symptoms.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi concluded that the psychiatric evidence raised reasonable doubt about their criminal responsibility at the time of the alleged offenses.
Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, who authored the main judgment, granted the brothers the benefit of doubt, while Justice Shakeel Ahmad emphasized in a concurring opinion that a psychiatric diagnosis does not automatically establish legal incapacity.
COURT ORDERS RELEASE
The court ordered their release unless they were required in another case and called for continued medical treatment.
“Twenty years of imprisonment is an enormous human cost,” Sardar Mushtaq Gill, a Pakistani human rights lawyer and founder and international advocacy director of the Christian organization LEAD Ministries, told Worthy News.
“No individual should have to spend decades waiting for the justice that the law is supposed to guarantee,” he added.
Gill also questioned whether Draz’s conversion from Islam played a role in the accusations, although the court did not establish such a connection.
It remained unclear whether the ruling could affect Christians and others facing blasphemy charges in Pakistan.
BLASPHEMY LAW CRITICIZED
Gill and other human rights campaigners have long criticized the legislation, under which numerous Christians and others have been detained, sometimes for years while awaiting trial or appeal.
Despite death sentences imposed under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, the country has not carried out a judicial execution for the offense.
However, rights organizations have warned that accusations can trigger mob violence, intimidation and attacks against suspects, sometimes before their cases reach court.
According to the Centre for Social Justice, at least 104 people, including 26 Christians, were killed outside the judicial process following blasphemy accusations between 1994 and 2024.
Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights recorded 767 people imprisoned on blasphemy charges in July 2024, while the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported 729 prisoners in Punjab province alone in June 2025.
CHRISTIANS AMONG PRISONERS
A British government report published in July 2026 also cited records identifying at least nine Pakistani Christians serving death or life sentences for blasphemy, with another nine detained on similar charges.
The brothers’ acquittal offered relief after two decades behind bars, while leaving unresolved broader concerns about judicial delays and the treatment of vulnerable defendants under Pakistan’s blasphemy legislation.
Pakistan is a predominantly Muslim nation of about 255 million people. Christians comprise about 1.4 percent of the population, according to the latest census, and belong to a minority that has faced persecution, often linked to blasphemy allegations, religious freedom advocates say.
Christian advocacy group Open Doors ranks Pakistan eighth on its 2026 World Watch List of 50 countries where it says Christians face the most severe persecution.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
