Lahore:
Pakistan's president may pardon a Christian woman facing a death sentence for blasphemy against Islam, officials said on the weekend, as the mother of five tearfully denied the charge in interviews.
Bibi, 45, appeared in a televised interview from her prison on Saturday, protesting her innocence to reporters and insisting the case stemmed from a personal dispute with her neighbours.
"They filed fake charges against me," she said, referring to her neighbours.
Bibi's case has drawn appeals from Pope Benedict XVI and human rights groups to free her.
She was sentenced to death earlier this month and has been in prison for the past one and a half years. On Saturday she also described her arrest.
"When they brought me into the police station, they misbehaved, slapped me four to five times," Bibi said.
The verdict has drawn attention to Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which critics say are used to persecute Christian and other minorities and often exploited to settle personal grudges.
Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for minority affairs, said on Saturday that President Asif Ali Zardari has asked for a report on the case.
"I contacted the family and we are standing with them to provide them justice and I personally believe that Asia Bibi will be freed", Bhatti said.
Bibi's husband Ashiq Masih, says her original spat was in June 2009 with a group of Muslim women who refused to drink from the same water bowl as a Christian when they were picking fruit in an orchard in their village of Attian Wali, west of Lahore in Punjab province.
"They tried to force her to accept that she had committed blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed but she refused", Masih said.
After Bibi argued with them and the women told the local imam that Bibi had insulted the Prophet Mohammed. The imam told the police and she was arrested.
Dozens of Pakistanis, many of them Christians, are sentenced to death each year for blasphemy. However, most cases are thrown out by higher courts and no executions have been carried out, Bhatti said.
Bibi, 45, appeared in a televised interview from her prison on Saturday, protesting her innocence to reporters and insisting the case stemmed from a personal dispute with her neighbours.
"They filed fake charges against me," she said, referring to her neighbours.
Bibi's case has drawn appeals from Pope Benedict XVI and human rights groups to free her.
She was sentenced to death earlier this month and has been in prison for the past one and a half years. On Saturday she also described her arrest.
"When they brought me into the police station, they misbehaved, slapped me four to five times," Bibi said.
The verdict has drawn attention to Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which critics say are used to persecute Christian and other minorities and often exploited to settle personal grudges.
Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for minority affairs, said on Saturday that President Asif Ali Zardari has asked for a report on the case.
"I contacted the family and we are standing with them to provide them justice and I personally believe that Asia Bibi will be freed", Bhatti said.
Bibi's husband Ashiq Masih, says her original spat was in June 2009 with a group of Muslim women who refused to drink from the same water bowl as a Christian when they were picking fruit in an orchard in their village of Attian Wali, west of Lahore in Punjab province.
"They tried to force her to accept that she had committed blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed but she refused", Masih said.
After Bibi argued with them and the women told the local imam that Bibi had insulted the Prophet Mohammed. The imam told the police and she was arrested.
Dozens of Pakistanis, many of them Christians, are sentenced to death each year for blasphemy. However, most cases are thrown out by higher courts and no executions have been carried out, Bhatti said.
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