HUMAN rights lawyer Aamer Anwar is taking on the case of a mentally ill Scots grandfather facing the death penalty for blasphemy in Pakistan as concerns were raised again over his treatment in prison.
The Glasgow-based solicitor has been instructed by the family of Mohammad Asghar, who is from Edinburgh, to represent the former shopkeeper after he was arrested in 2010 in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, for claiming to be the prophet Muhammed, and convicted in January.
He was sectioned in the UK after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and four months after his release, following a month under observation in the Royal Victoria Hospital, he travelled to Pakistan.
Prime Minister David Cameron and First Minister Alex Salmond both condemned the sentence, which is being appealed by the charity Reprive in partnership with Mr Anwar.
Mr Anwar, Labour's shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan and academics from the Muslim Institute and the Islamic Society of Britain are among those to have signed an open letter to Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain and the Pakistani government appealing for clemency.
His supporters claim the case was really about a property dispute.
Mr Asghar became embroiled in the dispute with his tenant who brought the blasphemy complaint against him to police.
Mr Anwar said: "I will be working in partnership with Reprieve and lawyers in Pakistan to secure his release.
"His medical and mental health remains a source of serious concern and we hope that the judicial process can be accelerated to deal with this miscarriage of justice.
A spokesman for Reprieve said: "We look forward to ensuring Mr Asghar gets the help and support he needs."
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