Pakistan Christians get 15 years for blasphemy
AP
November 27, 2006

FAISALABAD, Pakistan -- A Pakistani court has sentenced two Christians to 15 years of hard labor on charges of desecrating the Koran under the country's tough blasphemy laws, officials said Monday.

James Masih, 25, and Boota Masih, 60, were found guilty of burning pages of the Muslim holy book, Judge Mohammad Aslam said in a verdict Saturday after a trial in the industrial city of Faisalabad.

Both men, who are not related, were also fined 25,000 rupees ($416), court officials said.

"Scores of people gave evidence against the convicts," said police officer Mian Mian Muhammad Akram, adding that a member of the local council in the city's Nishatabad neighborhood had lodged the case against them.

"We saved their lives from an angry mob of Muslims who wanted to kill them, and took them into custody," senior police officer Sarfraz Falki added.

The Christian community would challenge the verdict, Christian provincial legislator Pervez Rafiq said. the rest