Lahore, Pakistan, Nov 30, 2016 / 11:49 am
Five men in Pakistan's Punjab province were sentenced to death last week for their leading role in the November 2014 murder of a Christian couple. Another eight were given two years in prison for their participation in the lynching.
Judge Chaudhry Muhammad Azam of Lahore's Anti-Terrorism Court handed down the sentences Nov. 23. The guilty have also been fined 200,000 Pakistani rupees (about $1,900).
On Nov. 4, 2014, Shahzad Masih and his wife Shama, who was pregnant with the couple's fourth child, were attacked by a lynch mob and their bodies burned after they were accused of desecrating the Quran. The couple lived in Kot Radha Kishan, a city located nearly 40 miles southwest of Lahore.
The couple worked at a brick kiln, and it has been reported that the kiln owner noticed Shama – who was illiterate – burning some belongings of her recently-deceased father-in-law, and charged that some pages she burnt were from the Quran – he then detained them. They owed him money, and he refused to release them without being paid.