Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday (Oct. 7) announced that it had upheld the death sentence of a Christian convicted under blasphemy laws while acquitting his brother, with rights advocates questioning the contrasting outcomes after years of legal proceedings, sources said.
A three-member Supreme Court bench dismissed Qaiser Ayub’s appeal, upholding his death sentence under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which criminalizes derogatory remarks about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam; Ayub was accused of publishing blasphemous material online.
Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and comprising Justices Shakeel Ahmad and Ishtiaq Ibrahim, the bench set aside the conviction and death sentence of his brother, Amoon Ayub, ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish his personal involvement in the alleged offense.
The brothers, residents of Lahore, were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2018. The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench upheld their convictions in 2022.
The case arose from allegations that blasphemous material had been published on a website registered in Qaiser Ayub’s name.
Qaiser Ayub, 49, a computer science graduate, has maintained that he shut down the website in 2009, but that a Muslim acquaintance, Shahryar Gill, later revived it while retaining Qaiser Ayub’s name in the copyright information. After the allegations surfaced, the brothers left Pakistan for Singapore and later Thailand. Qaiser Ayub was arrested after returning to Lahore in 2014, while Amoon Ayub, 46, was arrested in 2015.
In its nine-page judgment, the Supreme Court distinguished between the digital and documentary evidence it considered sufficient to uphold Qaiser Ayub’s conviction and the circumstantial evidence it found inadequate to establish Amoon Qayub’s guilt.
The court rejected Qaiser Ayub’s assertion that he had no connection with the WordPress blog, which displayed his name, email addresses, office address and telephone numbers. Domain registration records recovered from Qaiser’s laptop included documents dated June 2, 2009, which the court said showed that he had purchased and registered the primary domain. The use of the domain’s official email credentials to create the WordPress blog further connected him to the publishing platform, the court reasoned.
Investigators recovered a desktop computer and a laptop following Qaiser’s arrest. The court said forensic examinations found images, articles and other material corresponding to content published on the blog. It rejected the defense allegation that the incriminating files had been planted, citing correspondence between the material on the devices and the online publications.
The court also rejected objections to the complainant’s credibility and the delay in registering the First Information Report (FIR). Muhammad Saeed initially reported the matter in August 2010, but the FIR was registered on June 9, 2011. The court attributed the delay to uncertainty over jurisdiction in internet-related offenses and preliminary investigations by the Federal Investigation Agency. It noted that Saeed and the accused were strangers and found no evidence of an established history of enmity that would explain a false accusation.
Having considered the digital, documentary and testimonial evidence, the Supreme Court found no legal infirmity in the lower courts’ findings against Qaiser Ayub and upheld his conviction and death sentence.
The court reached a different conclusion regarding Amoon Ayub. Prosecutors had relied partly on a landline connection registered in his name and the tenancy of office premises held in his name. The court said these arrangements did not conclusively establish that he had created or uploaded the material, noting that telephone connections, internet subscriptions and rental agreements could be registered in one family member’s name while being used by others.
Finding insufficient evidence of Amoon Ayub’s personal knowledge or participation in the alleged offense, the court extended the benefit of doubt to him, set aside his conviction and sentence, and ordered his release.
The American Center for Law and Justice’s (ACLJ) international legal team and its Pakistani affiliate, the Organization for Legal Aid (OLA), represented the brothers in their legal battle.
“Since 2025, our attorneys have appeared before Pakistan’s Supreme Court to argue the brothers’ appeal,” Shaheryar Gill, senior counsel and head of the ACLJ, told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The court scheduled the case for argument 13 times, but each hearing was postponed. Finally, on July 6, the court heard the arguments and reserved its judgment, which was announced on Oct. 7.”
He said the legal team was overjoyed by Amoon Ayub’s acquittal but heartbroken for his brother. Gill recounted that when he called Amoon Ayub’s wife, Huma, to congratulate her, she broke down in tears and thanked God.
“For 11 years, Huma has visited her husband in prison every week,” Gill said. “Now, after more than a decade of separation, they will finally be together again.”
ACLJ/OLA will file a revision petition asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to uphold Qaiser Ayub’s death sentence, he said, describing the ruling as deeply troubling and setting a dangerous precedent in Pakistan’s blasphemy cases.
Rao Abdur Raheem, purported leader of the so-called “blasphemy business group” accused of entrapping people in false blasphemy cases, described the ruling as a milestone in enforcing the country’s blasphemy laws. In a video circulating on social media, Raheem is seen wearing garlands outside the court alongside Saeed, the complainant.
“This is the first time the barrier of the Supreme Court has been crossed in 40 years in the history of Pakistan since Section 295-C was added to the blasphemy law,” Raheem said, describing the decision as the culmination of a long legal struggle.
The Voice of the Victims of Blasphemy Business Group, which supports families victimized by blasphemy cases, questioned the human cost of Amoon Ayub’s years in detention and under prosecution.
“If Amoon Ayub has been acquitted after such a prolonged legal ordeal, who will answer for the 16 years taken from his life?” the group asked in an Oct. 8 statement on its Facebook page, calling for accountability for wrongful implication.
“Justice cannot be measured only by the final verdict. It must also consider the human cost of prolonged incarceration, the consequences of wrongful implication, the suffering of families, and the years of life that can never be returned,” it stated.
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have long drawn criticism from human rights organizations and legal experts. Besides blatantly violating freedom of speech, they warn that the provisions can be misused in personal disputes and have disproportionately affected religious minorities. Although the country has yet to carry out a state execution for blasphemy, accusations have repeatedly triggered mob violence and extrajudicial killings, while suspects can spend years in detention awaiting trial.
In the latest incident, a Muslim mob set fire to a Christian’s house and shop in Gharial Kalan village in Sheikhupura District, Punjab Province, on Friday (Oct. 9) after he was accused of sharing blasphemous content on Facebook, forcing more than 35 Christian families to flee their homes amid fears of further violence.
Police arrested Kamran Masih, 40, a father of three who ran a small pharmacy, on Oct. 8. He was accused of sharing a video posted by a U.S.-based, ex-Muslim Pakistani and charged under provisions concerning alleged disrespect toward the family and companions of Islam’s prophet and hurting religious sentiments.
“As word of Masih’s arrest spread, his family and other Christians started fleeing the village, fearing a mob attack,” a source told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News on condition of anonymity. Dozens of Muslims gathered outside the shop and adjacent residence on Friday (Oct. 9), and some set both buildings on fire, the source said.
Open Doors, a Christian support organization, ranked Pakistan eighth on its 2026 World Watch List of 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution, citing systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversions, bonded labor and gender-based violence. It warned that weak law enforcement and widespread impunity have allowed perpetrators of anti-Christian violence to evade accountability.
