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Pakistan's Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Asia Bibi, a 50-year-old Pakistani mother of five who was sentenced to death by hanging for insulting Islam. On Wednesday, the court agreed to hear her appeal.

Bibi's death sentence was handed down by a lower court in 2010 for committing "blasphemy."

 her lawyer telling reporters outside the Supreme Court: "The execution of Asia Bibi has been suspended and will remain suspended until the decision of this appeal."


, Bibi was the first woman ever to be convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan. The charges against her — which she has always denied — apparently stemmed from a squabble over drinking water.



Over the years, her case has elicited international outrage from 

 with her family in April. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, declared 

 of the French capital in March.
David Saperstein, the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, 

 that today's Pakistan Supreme Court move was a "significant step towards justice."
In 2011, both the Punjab provincial governor and Pakistan's minority affairs minister were assassinated after expressing support for Bibi and opposition to the country's harsh 

 Critics of those laws say accusations of blasphemy are too often used with impunity as a way to persecute minorities or settle scores. The Pakistani newspaper 

 in 2013 that more than 1,200 people had been charged under the laws between 1986 and 2010.
No one has been executed by the state for committing blasphemy. But even for those acquitted, released or never put on trial, the accusation itself can be 

Crime, Law and Justice

Hannah Bloch

Author

Asia Bibi, a 50-year-old mother of five sentenced to death in 2010 for insulting Islam, has been granted a reprieve -- for now. Pakistan's Supreme Court will hear her appeal, but no date has been set.

In Pakistan death row case, a rare glimmer of hope

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