Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to hang for blasphemy makes last appeal

Asia Bibi A Pakistani Christian woman who was sentenced to death for blasphemy has filed an appeal in Pakistan's supreme court in a final bid to avoid execution. 

Asia Bibi, a 50-year-old mother-of-five has been on death row since 2010 after being convicted of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad during an argument over a glass of well water. She denied the charges.

Her case has become an international cause celebre among rights groups and has even been offered asylum in France by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, in the hope she can escape the death penalty.

An open letter from Mrs Bibi's husband, which includes an impassioned note of thanks from her windowless cell, is currently in circulation on the internet to draw attention to her case.

Last month a lower court in the eastern city of Lahore confirmed her sentence, apparently ending hopes it would be commuted to a jail term

Saiful Malook, her defence lawyer, said on Monday that the Supreme Court appeal had been filed and was expected to take up to a year to be heard.
Last week, Mrs Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, wrote an impassioned open letter to the world community which was first published in the New York Times, calling for his wife to be set free and allowed to travel to France.
He relayed a message from his wife, that was passed to him on one of his monthly visits.
"My prison cell has no windows and day and night are the same to me, but if I am still holding on today it is thanks to everyone who is trying to help me. When my husband showed me the photographs of people I have never met drinking a glass of water for me, my heart overflowed," she said.
"Ashiq told me that the city of Paris is offering to welcome our family. I send my deepest thanks to you Madam Mayor, and to all the kind people of Paris and across the world. You are my only hope of staying alive in this dungeon, so please don't abandon me. I did not commit blasphemy."
The allegations against Mrs Bibi date back to June 2009, when she was labouring in a field and a row broke out with some Muslim women she was working with.
She was asked to fetch water, but the Muslim women objected, saying that as a non-Muslim she was unfit to touch the water bowl. A few days later the women went to a local cleric and put forward the blasphemy allegations.
Amnesty International has raised "serious concerns" about the fairness of her trial and has called for her release.
Pakistan has never executed anyone for blasphemy and has had a de-facto moratorium on civilian executions since 2008.
But anyone convicted, or even just accused, of insulting Islam, risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.