LHC seeks prosecution arguments on electronic evidence in Junaid Hafeez's appeal in blasphemy case

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) heard former university lecturer Junaid Hafeez's appeal against his death sentence in a blasphemy case on Tuesday, seeking the prosecution's stance on the admissibility of digital evidence. Hafeez was given a death sentence in 2019, and his appeal against the conviction has been pending since 2020.

A bench of two judges, Justices Sadiq Mahmud Khurram and Muhammad Jawad Zafar, heard the case on Tuesday as the complainant's lawyer, Advocate Athar Shah Bokhari, and Hafeez's own lawyer, Advocate Asad Jamal, represented him. The hearing commenced with the bench noting that formal notices had not been issued to the parties since the transfer of Hafeez's appeal from the Multan bench to the principal seat in December 2021.

The court adjourned the hearing until October 7, but the complainant's counsel requested an extended adjournment to prepare his arguments. Hafeez, a former visiting lecturer at the Bahauddin Zakariya University's Department of English Literature, was arrested in March 2013 and his blasphemy trial began in 2014. He received the death sentence on December 21, 2019, and appealed his conviction in 2020.

Seven judges transferred through the course of Hafeez's case, and 15 prosecution witnesses testified against him, while 11 others were deemed irrelevant. The trial was moved to the Multan Central Jail in April 2014 due to security concerns, and Hafeez's former lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was killed in May 2014, followed by a death threat to another lawyer representing Hafeez in December 2014. The appeal's hearing has also been postponed multiple times.