Supreme Court upholds Qaiser Ayub's death sentence in blasphemy case

The Supreme Court upheld on October 7 the death sentence of Qaiser Ayub, a Christian convicted under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, according to the European Centre for Law and Justice, the Strasbourg-based legal group whose lawyers represent him through its Lahore partner, the Organization for Legal Aid.

The ECLJ said the ruling is the first time the Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence passed under Section 295-C, which was added to the penal code in 1986. Ayub has been in detention for more than twelve years, the group said.

The same judgment acquitted his brother Amoon Ayub, who had also been sentenced to death in the case, on the ground that the evidence against him did not establish his guilt, according to the ECLJ.

The case began in August 2010 in Punjab, when a resident complained after finding texts deemed blasphemous on a WordPress blog. The ECLJ said the formal report documenting the offence was not drawn up until June 9, 2011, nearly ten months later. The defence contested that delay; the group said the Supreme Court accepted it because of initial uncertainty over which authority had jurisdiction.

Qaiser Ayub, a computer science graduate, and Amoon Ayub, a music teacher, were associated with the charity UCOPAK. They were arrested in November 2014 and April 2015. A trial court sentenced both to death in December 2018, and the Lahore High Court upheld the sentences in June 2022.

The ECLJ said Qaiser Ayub's conviction rests on a disputed link between the charity's website, ucopak.org, and the blog ucopak.wordpress.com that hosted the posts. Cyber investigators did not examine the servers or the email address used to open the blog, the group said. It said logins, file changes and the connection of an external USB drive were recorded on his computer after it was seized in November 2014.

The group called on the president to pardon Ayub under Article 45 of the Constitution.

Six United Nations special procedures mandate holders, among them the special rapporteurs on extrajudicial executions, on freedom of expression, on the independence of judges and lawyers and on freedom of religion or belief, sent a joint urgent communication to the Pakistani authorities on September 10, 2025, the ECLJ said.

The group said the Supreme Court had overturned death sentences in earlier blasphemy cases, including those of Asia Bibi, acquitted in 2018 after nine years in prison, and Anwar Kenneth, acquitted in 2025 after more than 23 years.

Pakistan's last execution was carried out in December 2019 and more than 3,300 people were on death row as of July 2025, the ECLJ said.