Lahore High Court acquits couple charged with blasphemy

A Pakistani court on Thursday overturned the death sentence of a Christian couple in a blasphemy case, acquitting them for lack of evidence after they had spent seven years on death row, lawyers said.

A lower court had sentenced Shafqat Emmanuel, a watchman at a factory, and his wife, Shagufta Kausar, to death in 2014 for allegedly sending derogatory remarks about the prophet in a text message to another man, Khalid Maqsood.

The couple’s lawyer, Saif-ul-Malook, told Reuters the Lahore High Court had acquitted the couple in the case in the central town of Toba Tek Singh.

A detailed order from the court was expected in the next two days, he said.