ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- A lawyer for a Pakistani cleric involved in the blasphemy case against a 14-year-old Christian girl said three witnesses recanted their statements to police.
The latest development came during a bail hearing in Islamabad for Khalid Jadoon Chisti, a Muslim cleric police say was accused by three witnesses of planting evidence that led to the blasphemy case against Rimsha Masih, the 14-year-old Christian girl.
At the bail hearing, Chisti's lawyer Wajid Ali Gilani said the three witnesses changed their original statements to police, saying they saw the cleric tearing out pages from a Muslim religious text and placing them with police evidence against Rimsha, CNN reported.
A fourth witness, however, stood by his original statement, CNN said.
The young girl has been accused under Pakistan's blasphemy laws of allegedly burning pages of Islamic holy text and her case has drawn much international criticism. Under the blasphemy laws of Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni-Muslim country, a person can sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Muhammad or desecrating the Muslim holy text.
CNN said police relied on the witnesses' original statements in their investigation to show the cleric had allegedly framed the young girl. That helped the girl's lawyers to seek dismissal of the blasphemy charge.
