ISLAMABAD - A local court of Islamabad district on Monday adjourned hearing of bail plea of Christian girl accused of blasphemy until September 7 due to lawyers’ strike.
Judge Muhammad Azam Khan adjourned the case on request from the lawyer for Hammad Malik, who filed the original complaint against Rimsha.
A medical report presented in the court on Monday stated that Rimsha appeared to be “approximately 14 years (of age). She appears uneducated and her mental age appears below her chronological age”. The single-page report stated that the age estimation was based on such factors as her teeth, height, weight and physique.
Also on Monday, police submitted written statements of two other eye-witnesses Muhammad Shahzad and Awais Ahmed stating that prayer leader Khalid Chishti added pages from the Holy Quran to the burnt pages brought to him by a witness to beef up the case against her.
Rimsha’s lawyer and family believe that she would be released on September 7. The girl is currently being held at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Rimsha’s counsel Tahir Naveed Chaudhry claimed that prosecutors and lawyers for her accuser were using delaying tactics.
“The medical report has declared her a minor with a low IQ. How can she commit blasphemy? She is innocent and should be released,” he said.