Jailed Pakistani Christian mother nominated for EU's religious freedom prize

Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian mother who was jailed and sentenced to death due to blasphemy charges, has been nominated for the European Union's prestigious Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.

According to BosNewsLife, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), the third largest group in the European parliament, nominated Bibi on late Wednesday for what is considered as Europe's most prestigious human rights award.

"Her case is a symbol for others hurt in their freedom of expression and especially freedom of religion," said Dutch European parliamentarian Peter van Dalen, a member of ECR's faction, ChristenUnion-SGP.

"It is good that my colleagues in the ECR and I continue to defend the rights of Bibi and many others," he added.

Bibi, who has been in prison since 2009, could receive the $59,500 award that comes with the Sakharov Prize if she is backed by a majority of the European Parliament in next month's vote.

Previous recipients of the award, named after Soviet-era dissident and scientist Andrei Sakharov, include Nadia Murad and Lamya Aji Bashar Taha, two young Yazidi women who were enslaved by the Islamic State terror group.

Bibi's nomination came amid mounting international concern about her plight as she awaits hearing for her appeal in Pakistan's Supreme Court. Her attorney had attempted to have the latest hearing scheduled for June, but it was delayed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar.

The Christian mother of five was arrested in 2009 after Muslim co-workers accused her of blasphemy for praising Jesus Christ and allegedly insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

In 2010, a lower court sentenced her to death by hanging, and the verdict was upheld in 2014 by a two-member bench of Lahore High Court .

The final hearing on her case was delayed after one of the judges reportedly refused to be a part of the three-member bench that was supposed to hear the case at the Supreme Court.

On October 13, 2016, Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman reasoned that he was part of the bench that heard the case of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, which he said was related to Bibi's case. Taseer was assassinated by his own bodyguard in 2011 after he proposed reforms for the nation's blasphemy laws.

"The case continues to be postponed due to the problems of this country. We are in the midst of a continuing war between Islam and Kufr (infidels). But our hopes for her release are many," said Bibi's defense counsel Advocate Saif-ul-Malook.

Bibi would be the first woman in Pakistan to be executed for blasphemy if the high court upholds her death sentence.