Canada offers asylum to Aasia Bibi

Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy, is moving to Canada after accepting an offer of asylum by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, reported HuffPost.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking review of its October 31, 2018 verdict of acquitting Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who was sentenced to death in a blasphemy case, saying that the petitioner was unable to pinpoint any mistake in the earlier verdict.

Bibi is expected to land in Canada this week to join two of her daughters, who were flown out earlier this month.

‘CANADA A WELCOMING COUNTRY’:

The Trudeau government has the support of Canada’s opposition Conservative Party, who have urged him to “use every mechanism at his disposal to offer the Bibi family asylum”.

In November Trudeau told reporters while in Paris: “There is a delicate domestic context that we respect which is why I don’t want to say any more about that, but I will remind people Canada is a welcoming country,” he added.

Bibi spent years in solitary confinement after an argument with a group of Muslim women in June 2009, who accused her of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. But in October Pakistan’s supreme court overturned her conviction, saying the case against her was based on flimsy evidence.

Her acquittal sparked violent protests across the country, led by Islamic religious hardliners from the extremist group Tehreek-e-Labaik, whose leaders were later arrested and detained on terrorism and sedition charges.

Days after her release, Bibi’s husband Ashiq Masih made an impassioned video plea to Theresa May asking for asylum in the UK.

But her appeal for sanctuary was controversially denied by the UK’s home office because of fears that British embassies and their staff would be targeted by Islamic extremists as a result.

Several countries had reportedly offered Bibi asylum, including France, Spain, Holland, Germany, Italy and Australia.