Court sentences university lecturer Junaid Hafeez to death on blasphemy charge.

MULTAN -- A district court in Multan on Saturday sentenced academic Junaid Hafeez to death on a blasphemy charge, local media reported.

In 2013, Junaid Hafeez, a 26-year-old Fulbright scholar who had been employed as a lecturer at a university in Multan, was arrested on blasphemy charges. The charges against him included 'liking' an allegedly blasphemous Facebook page.

Hafeez's sentence was announced in Multan, where he had been a university professor at the time of his arrest. His counsel Asad Jamal slammed the decision as "most unfortunate".

"We will appeal against this verdict," Jamal told.

The sentence was announced under Sections 295-A, 295-B and 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Section 295-A deals with "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs," Section 295-B concerns the "Defiling, etc., of Holy Qur'an", whereas 295-C deals with the "use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet."

The court, in its short order, wrote that all sentences handed to Hafeez shall run consecutively and the accused will not be entitled to the benefit of Section 382-B (reduction of period of sentence of imprisonment) of the Criminal Procedures Code "because in case of blasphemer, this court has found no circumstances for taking lenient view and it is also not permitted in Islam".

Police had accused Hafeez of running and disseminating blasphemous content from a Facebook page. However, the page had remained active even after fourteen months of his arrest.

After legal experts refused to contest Hafeez's case, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's (HRCP) Multan coordinator, Rashid Rehman, had agreed to take it up.

Facing immense pressure, Rehman had made an application to the Lahore High Court (LHC), requesting that the trial be moved to Lahore given the hostile environment in Multan and the threats to the lives of Hafeez and himself.

The LHC had refused the application, stating there is 'no material in support of the apprehension expressed on behalf of the petitioner' and that they should approach the police in Multan for protection.

Unidentified assailants had killed Rehman in his office in May 2014.

"The prospect of Hafeez getting even a semblance of fair trial came into question when his...