OTTAWA – Asia Bibi is finally free 10 years after being imprisoned on spurious charges of blasphemy in Pakistan. She spent eight of those years in a cell on death row while Christians around the world prayed for her health, safety, and release.

According to reports from the Canadian Broadcasting System and the British Pakistan Christian Association, she has, at last, arrived in Canada, seven months to the day she was acquitted on appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on October 8, 2018.

Although acquitted, Bibi remained in jail until the court made its decision public during the last week of October.

She had originally been found guilty of blasphemy because she allegedly had taken a sip of water from a co-worker’s cup. Under Islamic law, the Christian woman had made the cup unclean and, therefore, anathema to the Muslim farm women working alongside her. She had, in their eyes, insulted their prophet, Mohammed. They demanded that she forsake her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and convert to Islam.

After a life-altering verdict and eight years on death row, the Supreme Court judges ruled unanimously that the prosecution had

“categorically failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, that the evidence against her was flimsy, the complainant was not present when the alleged activity took place, and the testimony of the witnesses against her were contradictory.”

The judges received death threats as Pakistan Muslims lined the streets of Islamabad declaring that they would kill Asia once she was released. The Khan administration promised her protection but because of the time necessary to make adequate security arrangements, she was not released from prison until the night of November 27.

Irate Muslims launched door-to-door searches in failed attempts to locate and kill her. She was freed from prison but still held in protective custody and still under threat of a vigilante death sentence.

She remained in custody pending a final review of the court’s decision of January 29. Following the final review, which was in her favor, she had anticipated that she would be free to leave Pakistan. She was ready to join her family in Canada.

Until this morning, no one knew for certain where she was being held. When her flight arrived in Canada this morning, her long ordeal in her home country had finally come to an end.

We encourage readers to pray that she will be welcomed in Canada and that she will be able to enjoy life with her family as she has longed to do for the last decade.

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