Boy Unsafe In Pakistan Prison, Lawyer Says

Even in a squalid prison cell on death row, the 14-year-old Christian boy sentenced to be hanged for insulting Islam isn’t safe, his defense attorney said Sunday.

“I am very, very apprehensive,” the attorney, Hina Jilani, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Lahore, Pakistan.”That’s why we want to get this trial over as soon as possible. His safety is a real source of tension.”

Salamat Masih’s appeal hearing is to resume today in the Lahore High Court.

Salamat never leaves the cell he shares with his uncle, Rehmat Masih, 40, also sentenced to be hanged for allegedly writing anti-Islamic graffiti on a mosque wall in 1993. Salamat’s other cellmate is a convicted murderer.

A third person accused in the case was shot and killed outside a Lahore court last April as he waited for his police protection to arrive.