Pakistan?s Supreme Court has accepted the appeal of a Christian, Ayyub Masih, sentenced to death three years ago for blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad.

?The case against Ayyub Masih was instituted, prosecuted and decided in the absence of circumstantial evidence?, the Pakistan bishops? National Commission for Justice and Peace declared. ?The case was registered without investigation, merely on a statement of the complainant.? A statement from the bishops? commission says the suit was filed after a dispute between a Muslim landlord and Christian peasants, Ayyub among them.

Last July, the Multan High Court confirmed the death sentence, but lawyers said the ruling was made ?under duress? owing to Islamic extremists. The case gained international attention after the Catholic Bishop John Joseph of Faisalabad killed himself in front of the Sahiwal sessions court following the court?s verdict against Ayyub.

Human rights lawyers charge that Section 295-C of the criminal code, which insists on the death penalty for even an insinuation or innuendo that defiles the prophet Muhammad?s name, is abused to settle disputes. Ayyub became the fourth Christian to be condemned under the law. The other three, including a 14-year-old boy, had their convictions overturned by the Lahore High Court, but fled the country for their safety.

In April 1998, Judge Rana Abdul Ghaffar announced the death sentence on Ayyub in Sahiwal, which lies 500 kilometres south of Islamabad. The court proceedings had been moved there for security reasons after Ayyub was shot at in the corridors of the town?s sessions court.