Muslim woman, 26, is sentenced to death by hanging after sending caricatures of Prophet …

A Muslim woman has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for sending caricatures of Prophet Muhammad over WhatsApp, a court said.Aneeqa Ateeq, 26, was arrested in May 2020 and charged with posting ‘blasphemous material’ as her WhatsApp status, according to a summary issued by the court.When her friend urged her to change it, she instead forwarded the material to him, according to the court.Blasphemy is an act punishable by the death sentence in Muslim-majority Pakistan, although an execution has never been carried out for the crime.  Aneeqa Ateeq, 26, was arrested in May 2020 and charged with posting ‘blasphemous material’ as her WhatsApp status, according to a summary issued by the court (stock image)Caricatures of Mohammed are forbidden by Islam.Ateeq’s sentence was announced on Wednesday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, with the court ordering her to be ‘hanged by her neck till she is dead’.She was also handed a 20-year jail sentence.Up to 80 people are known to be jailed in Pakistan on blasphemy charges – half of whom face life in prison or the death penalty – according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.Pakistan has strict blasphemy laws which carry a death penalty for people who…
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