Pakistan Blasphemy Case: Asia Bibi released from prison

A Pakistani Christian woman recently saved from a death sentence for blasphemy against Islam has been released from prison into protective custody.

Security officials said Asia Bibi had been released from a prison in Multan in southern Punjab province on Wednesday night (local time).

The mother-of-five, whose conviction was reversed last week by the Supreme Court, has been taken to a secure location for fear of attacks.

After being freed she was flown to the airport near the capital, Islamabad, but was in protective custody because of threats to her life.

Troops guarded the roads leading to the airport from which she departed.

Bibi's lawyer who fled the country this week and sought asylum in the Netherlands confirmed she was no longer in prison.

"All I can tell you is that she has been released," lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook said.

She was arrested in 2009, with the blasphemy accusations following a quarrel with two female farm workers who refused to drink from a water container used by a Christian.

A few days later a mob accused her of insulting Islam's prophet and in 2010 Bibi was convicted.

Bibi's family has always maintained her innocence and says she never insulted the prophet.

Insulting Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan and the mere rumor of doing so can incite lynchings.

Christians, who make up only about 2 percent of the country are sometimes discriminated against.

Protests by hardline Islamists prompted the government to impose a travel ban on Bibi until her case is reviewed.

While Bibi faces threats of death and violence in her home country, the Italian Foreign Ministry has begun working to help relocate her and her family.

Asia Bibi's case has been closely followed in Italy for years, and Pope Francis met earlier this year with her family in a show of solidarity.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said it was ready to act on whatever the Italian government might decide an indication that an offer of asylum might be coming.

Even Italy's anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini stressed that he would do "all that is humanly possible" to ensure Bibi and her family are safe, either in Italy or another country.

There have also been calls from within German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party for Germany to grant refuge after Bibi's husband Ashiq Masih appealed for help to relocate their family.

Masih has also appealed to the US president Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May to help the family leave Pakistan.

"Please help us, we are in trouble in Pakistan," he said in a short online video.

"We are now living under an increased sense of fear,” he said.