Pakistan sentences Briton to death

Mohammed Asghar was arrested in 2010 in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, for claiming to be the Prophet Mohammed in letters that were later produced at his trial, prosecutor Javed Gul said. But a lawyer that previously defended Asghar said the case was really a property dispute and that he suffers from mental illness.

A judge convicted and sentenced Asghar, who is of Pakistani origin, on Thursday, Mr Gul said.

Asghar returned to Pakistan in 2010 after being treated for paranoid schizophrenia in Edinburgh, the lawyer said.

He defendant later fell into a dispute with a tenant who brought the blasphemy complaint against him to police.

The doctor treating Asghar in Edinburgh said in a letter dated June 2011 that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and believed that the Pakistani and British governments were attempting to control him. The letter was provided to the AP news agency by his lawyer.

The lawyer asked not to be named as those involved in blasphemy cases face threats and violence.

Prosecutors disputed that Ashgar had mental problems.

The UK High Commission in Islamabad said it was aware of Asghar’s case and provided assistance to him.

Lawyers said they will appeal against Asghar’s conviction, and they were worried about his mental condition and physical safety while he is in prison.

Scores of people have been arrested in Pakistan under the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, which carry sentences of life in prison or the death penalty, though executions are rarely carried out.

Rights groups say the laws often are exploited for personal gain and that members of Pakistan’s minority population are disproportionately targeted.