Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquits 3 men convicted of burning alive a Christian couple in 2014

Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquitted the final three men previously sentenced to death in the 2014 mob killing of a Christian couple who were beaten and burned alive in a brick kiln after being accused of blasphemy. 

According to The News International, a three-member bench led by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan granted Irfan, Mehdi, and Riaz the benefit of the doubt, citing weaknesses in the prosecution’s evidence and inconsistencies in the case. The court also dismissed an appeal by the Punjab provincial government against the acquittal of another 102 individuals accused in the killing.

The ruling leaves no one convicted in one of Pakistan’s most prominent cases of blasphemy-related mob violence.

On Nov. 4, 2014, a mob in Kot Radha Kishan, in Punjab province, severely beat Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife, Shama Bibi, before throwing them into a brick-kiln furnace while they were still alive, according to the outlet. The violence began after the couple was accused of committing blasphemy by desecrating pages of the Quran. Reports at the time said the accusation spread rapidly through the surrounding community and drew hundreds of people to the kiln.

Police reportedly charged more than 100 people in connection with the attack. In 2016, an Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced five men to death and imposed prison sentences on several others for their roles in the attack. An anti-terrorism court acquitted 20 suspects in 2018, while the Lahore High Court later overturned two of the five death sentences and upheld those of the remaining three men. Other defendants were acquitted as the case moved through Pakistan’s courts.

The country’s Supreme Court decision concludes a legal battle that lasted nearly 12 years and drew international attention to religious violence triggered by blasphemy accusations and the vulnerability of Pakistan’s Christian minority. 

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Christians in Pakistan continue to face severe pressure because of their faith, according to Open Doors, which ranked the country eighth on its 2026 World Watch List of places where Christians face the most extreme persecution.

The organization attributed the persecution to Islamic extremism, corruption, organized crime, clan pressure, and authoritarian control. It also identified Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which impose severe penalties for offenses against Islam, as a major source of danger for Christians and other religious minorities.

>> Christian man acquitted of blasphemy charges in Pakistani court <<