Sherif Hassan free, Asia Bibi faces execution

An update on two cases that I have been following, in case you didn't see this elsewhere.

Sherif Hassan, the UK-based Egyptian imprisoned in Egypt, has been released. Sherif was arrested because he is a former Muslim, but eventually released. The website set up to highlight his case must take some of the credit for this - visit to find out what else you can do to help the plight of Egypt's harassed Christians.

However Asia Bibi, an ordinary Pakistani woman, still faces the death penalty under that country's draconian blasphemy laws. This relatively recent law, a symptom of rising militancy, has been regularly used to justify the abuse of Christians in Pakistan. It was good to see this on the BBC news last night - hopefully this kind of international scrutiny will help Asia in her desperate situation.

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