**Updates IFEX alert of 26 November 1999** (RSF/IFEX) – In a 14 February 2000 letter to Law Minister Aziz A. Munshi, RSF protested the jailing of Ayub Khoso, a columnist with the newspaper “Alakh”, published in Hyderabad. RSF asked the minister to personally intervene in order to assure the journalist’s immediate release. The organisation is […]
**Updates IFEX alert of 26 November 1999**
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 14 February 2000 letter to Law Minister Aziz A. Munshi, RSF protested the jailing of Ayub Khoso, a columnist with the newspaper “Alakh”, published in Hyderabad. RSF asked the minister to personally intervene in order to assure the journalist’s immediate release. The organisation is worried about the conditions in which he is being held at Hyderabad central jail. At first, Khoso’s relatives were not allowed to visit him. He remains in detention, counter to the advice of international organisations. The United Nations Special Rapporteur for freedom of opinion and speech has asked governments to “ensure that press offences are no longer punishable by terms of imprisonment.” RSF also called on the law minister to guarantee “all the international standards concerning fair trials,” in particular during the appeals trial of the journalist and his publisher. On 26 November 1999, RSF wrote to Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon and protested the heavy sentence passed on Khoso and Zahoor Ansari, publisher and chief editor, respectively, of the Sindhi-language daily “Alakh”.
According to information collected by RSF, Khoso was taken to the Hyderabad central jail on 18 December after surrendering to authorities. The journalist had earlier gone into hiding after being sentenced on 26 November to seventeen years’ imprisonment for “blasphemy”. Khoso and his publisher were sentenced for writing and publishing a 5 September 1998 article in “Alakh” containing “derogatory remarks” against Muslim prophets. Both were sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment by the Anti-Terrorism Court under Sections 295 (A) and 34 of the Pakistani Penal Code. They were given additional seven year prison terms under Sections 8 (B) and (D) of the 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act. They were also fined Rs 17,000 (approx. US$400, 400 Euros) each and in case of non-payment of the fine, will have to serve a further two years’ imprisonment. The case was registered by Mian Ahmed, a fundamentalist cleric living in Mirpukhas, who is known for pursuing publications he believes are guilty of “inciting religious hatred.” Khoso has also lost his job as a teacher. His family has no other source of income and does not have the resources to pay a lawyer to defend him on appeal at the Sindh High Court.
