04 April 2013 :

A Pakistani appeals court overturned the conviction and death sentence of Younis Masih, a Christian man who spent years behind bars on charges of 'blasphemy', a lawyer involved in the case told BosNewsLife.
Masih, 32, was sentenced in May 2007 in the city of Lahore for making "derogatory remarks" about Islam's Prophet Mohammad.
"However the Lahore High Court declared him innocent of the charges and ordered his release," said attorney Sardar Mushtaq Gill of advocacy group Legal Evangelical Association Development (LEAD).
Gill, who was at the hearing, also told BosNewsLife that Masih will not have to pay a fine of some 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,000), a huge amount in impoverished Pakistan. He said the young man was expected to embrace his wife and four children later Wednesday, April 3.
His expected release ends an ordeal that began in 2005 when Lahore police first detained him after Muslims complained that he asked them to turn down the volume of Islamic Mystical Sufi Music.
Some 400 Muslims attacked Christian homes, forcing over 100 families to flee the area, according to LEAD investigators
Police also "tortured" Masih and a cousin who was initially detained with him, according to Christians involved in the case. When Masih was eventually sentenced to death in 2007, LEAD and other groups supported his appeal.
More than a dozen people are known to be on death row over blasphemy allegations and over 50 people have been killed while awaiting trial on similar charges, according to rights activists.