THE lawyer of a Scots grandfather facing death in Pakistan for blasphemy has claimed her client will not survive conditions in the prison where he is being held in until his appeal is heard.
Mohammed Asghar, who lived in Edinburgh until a few years ago, was arrested in 2010 in Rawalpindi, near the Pakistani capital Islamabad, for claiming to be the Prophet Muhammad. The 69-year-old has already attempted suicide in jail.
His family said he was treated for paranoid schizophrenia at Edinburgh's Royal Victoria Hospital before he travelled to Pakistan four years ago. He was convicted last month and sentenced to death, and is now languishing in a seriously overcrowded prison in Rawalpindi.
His Pakistani counsel, who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the case, said: "He remains entangled in his grandiose delusions and can make little sense of what is happening to him. He does not act like a man who has been sentenced to death, because he does not fully grasp what that means.
"Due to a lack of adequate medical or psychiatric care, he is not being treated for his mental illness nor is he being provided the treatment outlined by his Scottish psychiatrist."
Adiala Prison, where he is being held, "is grossly overcrowded with several inmates stuffed into a cell made to house two", she said.
A spokesman for the legal charity Reprieve said: "Mr Asghar remains a very ill man, and we're continuing to push the UK and Pakistani governments to work towards his speedy release to ensure he gets the medical attention he needs."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We are concerned about this case and are in contact with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Mr Asghar's family, who will keep us informed of the situation."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article