Life Sentence for Pakistani Muslim Man Convicted of Raping 12-Year-Old Christian Girl
A Pakistani court sentenced a Muslim man to life imprisonment for raping a 12-year-old Christian girl.
A Muslim man named Reza, along with three accomplices, kidnapped a Christian girl whose name is being withheld in September 2023 and transported her to an unknown location. The Christian girl was 12 years old at the time of her abduction. She was subjected to harassment, torture, and rape by Reza and his accomplices for one month, and the accused forced her to accept Islam and then created a fake marriage document for her.
Police arrested Reza in October 2023, but the other accused remain at large. Hanif Hamid, the lawyer for this Christian family, stated: “The judge sentenced this man to life imprisonment and a monetary fine for the kidnapping and sexual assault of this girl who was 12 years and four months old at the time of the crime. This verdict was issued based on sections 376 and 364 of the Pakistani Penal Code.”
Although the family court issued a ruling to annul the forced marriage and confirm the forced religious conversion of this girl, the judge issuing the life sentence for Reza did not pay any attention to these matters. Hanif Hamid, the lawyer for this family, also expressed concern about the disregard for charges of forging the marriage document and forced religious conversion.
According to a report by the Justice Center for Social Justice, approximately 400 cases of forced marriage and forced religious conversion have been reported in Pakistan from 2021 to 2024, with most victims being young girls and children. The United Nations Human Rights Committee also called on Pakistan to take immediate action to protect religious and sectarian minorities from such crimes.
Pakistan is one of the countries where many extremist Muslims reside and subject Christians to harassment, torture, and sexual assault, and in many cases have informally forced them into marriage with fake documents and compelled them to convert to Islam. Violence that causes numerous psychological and physical problems for victims.
