Judge has issued orders for the case to be heard in in a juvenile court.
Rimsha Masih, who was alleged of blasphemy, later taken into custody by
military and taken to some undisclosed destination, will now be trialed under juvenile court because of her mental disability but from no angle she looks less than fourteen. But at the same time it will be extremely difficult to challenge the medical sheet provided by medical experts whereas no such issue of mental health was raised at the time of criminal act of Rimsha.
Her lawyer Tahir Naveed Chaudhry told dpa the juvenile laws prescribed a maximum seven-year prison sentence, not the life sentence that could be handed down to an adult convict. Judge Jawad Abbas Hassan adjourned the case till October 1, when prosecutors have been asked to submit a new charge sheet. Chaudhry said his client might not face trial at all, as a higher court was requested Monday to terminate the charges against Masih.
Tahir has said: "Our position is very strong as there is no evidence against Rishma (Masih. The (Islamabad) high court will hopefully give its ruling in next few days and in the meantime the lower court's proceedings will be stayed."
A police document presented before the lower court on Saturday said investigators found no evidence or witness against Masih, who was accused by one of her Muslim neighbors of burning holy Islamic scriptures. Investigation Officer Munir Jaffery, however, accused local imam Khalid Jadoon Chishti of deliberately tearing out pages of the Holy Koran and planting them on Masih.
Police detained the Christian girl on August 16 after a group of Muslims surrounded her house in a slum neighbourhood of Islamabad. A court ordered her release on bail earlier this month.
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