A Christian man has been jailed in Pakistan after accidentally stepping on pages of the Quran.
Dennis Albert, 35, reportedly found himself in legal crosshairs in April after exiting his pull car and inadvertently standing on papers said to have come from the Islamic holy book.
Dennis has since been jailed on blasphemy charges. He could face 10 years behind bars for “hurting religious sentiments.”
But it’s the second charge — “defiling the Quran” — that could land him with a sentence of life behind bars.
The entire legal case against Dennis is purportedly based on a passerby’s testimony that he saw him standing on papers belonging to the Quran. BVN reports on what the accused’s brother, Imran Albert, believes actually unfolded.
“My brother says that his shoes were in the rickshaw, and when he stepped out of his three-wheeler to wait for a new customer, he inadvertently stepped on some pieces of paper on the roadside,” Imran said. “Dennis didn’t [know] that the pages were Islamic scripture.”
Muslims who observed the scene reportedly assaulted Dennis, despite his purported attempts to explain that the situation was a misunderstanding.
Asad Jamal, Dennis’s attorney, called the charges against his client “ridiculous, to say the least.”
“There’s nothing that proves that Dennis has committed the act intentionally,” Jamal said. “It seems that some individuals and groups have launched a campaign to target innocent people with blasphemy charges.”
As for Dennis’ mindset, Imran said his brother is “losing hope for his freedom” as the case drags on.
Pakistan continues to be a difficult place for many Christians. it was recently reported that, police officers there reportedly refused to help a Catholic family who recently fell victim to an attack by armed Muslims.
Shahnaz Yousaf said her family saw their farmland seized during an April 16 assault.
Meanwhile, a pastor survived an assassination attempt last year. There was also a horrific Aug. 16 assault during which churches and Christians’ homes were attacked by Muslim mobs over blasphemy allegations in the same area, the UCA News reported. That incident led to at least 129 arrests.
Pakistan ranks on Open Doors’ World Watch List as the seventh most dangerous place for Christians.
“Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws are often used to target minority groups, but Christians are disproportionately affected,” the Open Doors report reads. “Indeed, roughly a quarter of all blasphemy accusations target Christians, who only make up 1.8% of the population.”
