Pakistani Muslim sentenced to death for blasphemy

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani man was sentenced to death for blasphemy on Wednesday after he defiled the Muslim holy book and used derogatory language to refer to the Prophet Mohammad, a police official said.

Convictions for blasphemy are fairly common in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, with most cases involving members of religious minorities, but death sentences have never been carried out usually because convictions are thrown out on a lack of evidence.

The convicted man, Mohammad Shafeeq, a Muslim in his early 20s, was arrested in 2006 in a village near the eastern city of Sialkot where the trial was held in the court of Justice Shoaib Ahmad Roomi.

"Judge Roomi sentenced him to death for defiling the Holy Koran and using derogatory language against the Prophet," said Shezada Hassan Ali, a senior official at the jail where Shafeeq has been kept.

"He can appeal the court decision."

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has long demanded he repeal of the blasphemy law which, it says, is misused against religious minorities such as Christians.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch group this week urged the abolition of the death penalty in Pakistan where nearly a quarter of 31,400 convicts in the country have been sentenced to death.

In 2007, 309 prisoners were sentenced to death and 134 were hanged, the group said, adding that most of those sentenced to death were poor and illiterate.

(Reporting by Augustine Anthony; editing by Robert Birsel)