On Wednesday 24 October, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani called for Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian, to be able to have a "fair" trial before Pakistan's supreme court.
"I call on the Pakistani authorities to ensure her a fair trial and to avoid any form of religious prejudice or discrimination", he said ahead of the votes, to the applause of the MEPs who were present.
Asia Bibi has been sentenced to death for blasphemy. In June 2009, Muslims from her village refused to drink water in a glass that she had just used because they deemed this water impure as the Christian woman had drunk from the glass before them. Asia Bibi has always denied these accusations.
After her appeal was rejected, Bibi appealed to the supreme court, which studied the appeal on 8 October but decided to reserve its judgment. No date has yet been communicated for the issue of the judgment.
The European Parliament has repeatedly called for Bibi's release (see EUROPE 11286) and for revision of the law on blasphemy (see EUROPE 11206).
In 2017, the ECR Group proposed Asia Bibi's candidacy for the Sakharov Prize, which was that year won by the Venezuelan opposition (see EUROPE 11875). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)