Pakistan’s Supreme Court has released a ruling explaining its decision to acquit three Muslim men who had been sentenced to death for the 2014 killing of a Christian couple burned alive in a brick kiln.
In a 26-page judgment issued July 9, the court cited inconsistencies, evidentiary gaps and a lack of reliable proof supporting the convictions. The ruling followed appeals challenging a May 16, 2019, Lahore High Court decision that had upheld death sentences originally imposed by an anti-terrorism court on Nov. 23, 2016.
A three-judge bench comprising Justice Shahzad Ahmad Khan, Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Justice Shakeel Ahmed described the crime as “shocking and brutal”. Still, it concluded that prosecutors had failed to present convincing evidence tying the three petitioners to the killings.
The justices also said there was no persuasive evidence that Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife, Shama Bibi, had desecrated the Quran before they were attacked.
The judgment emphasized that the horrific nature of an offense cannot replace the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It also noted that none of the couple’s relatives had filed the complaint in the case.
The court raised further concerns over the absence of primary suspect Muhammad Irfan’s name from the initial police report. Witnesses later alleged that Irfan had pushed the couple into the furnace, but the judges questioned how his name could have been provided to police if it was missing from the FIR.
The Supreme Court treated the jail petition as an appeal, overturned the lower-court rulings and acquitted the three men on all charges. They were ordered released immediately unless being held in connection with another case.
The court also rejected the Punjab government’s attempt to overturn the acquittal of 102 other defendants, finding “no material illegality or misreading of evidence” in the earlier decisions. The judges also observed that the legal heirs of Masih and Bibi had not appealed those acquittals.
Masih and Bibi, parents of three children, were beaten by a mob on Nov. 4, 2014, and thrown into a brick kiln furnace in Kot Radha Kishan, Kasur District, Punjab Province, after accusations that they had desecrated pages of the Quran.
According to the FIR, attackers tore apart the roof of an office where the couple had sought shelter, dragged them outside and assaulted them before throwing them into the furnace, where both died.
Police officers who reached the scene were reportedly overwhelmed and attacked, while witnesses and relatives were unable to stop the mob. Authorities initially registered a case involving 660 named and unidentified suspects.
An anti-terrorism court sentenced five men to death in November 2016 and gave eight others two-year prison terms. The Lahore High Court later acquitted two death-row defendants while maintaining the death sentences of Muhammad Irfan, Mehdi Khan and Muhammad Riaz Kumbh.
